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Foot-prints 



OF 



Temperance 
Pioneers. 



COMPILED BY 



J. N. STEARNS. 



NEW YORK : 
NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION HOUSE, 

58 Reade Street. 



FOOT-PRINTS 



OF 



Temperance Pioneers. 



COMPILED BY 

J. N. STEARNS. 



<X 






i 



J$ 



New York-. 
National Temperance Society and Publication House, 

58 READE STREET. 

1885. 







Copyright, 1885, 
THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION HOUSE. 



H. J. HEWITT, TRINTER, 27 HOSE STREET, NEW YORK. 



\ ill 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Armstrong:, Rev. Lebbeus, 52 

Barnes, Albert, D.D., " 73 

Beecher, Lyman, D.D., '.30 

Brewery, Deacon Jones'. 74- 

Cass, Hon. Lewis, 95 

Cheever, Geo. B., D.D., (37 

Distillery, Deacon Giles's, qq 

Edwards, Justin, D.D., 34 

Fifty Years Ago, 108 

Fiske, Wilbur, D.D., . ! 92 

Frelinghuysen, Hon. Theodore, 99 

Great National Scourge, The, ....... 104 

Hewitt, Nathaniel, D.D., 102 

Humphrey, Heman, D.D., ........ 80 

Hunt, Rev. Thomas P., .82 

Jefferson, Hon. Thomas, Go 

Jewett, Charles, M.D., 89 

Kittredge, Jonathan, Esq., 86 

Marsh, John, D.D., 02 

Mathew, Rev. Theobald, 101 

Mussey, R. D., M.D., 40 

Xott, Eliphalet, D.D., LL.D., . . .... 96 

Noyes, George, Esq., . ... V ..... 29 

Palfrey, John G., A.M., 76 

Pierpont, Rev. John, 103 

Presidential Declaration, 33 

Rush, Benjamin, M.D., 5 

" " " Thermometer, ..:... 100 

Sargent, L. M., Esq., 45 

Scott, Dr. W. R., 88 

Sigourney, Mrs. L. H., . . . 85 

Smith, Hon. Gerrit, 83 

Stuart, Prof. Moses, D.D., 23 

Twelve Reasons for Total Abstinence, 107 

Walworth, Hon. Reuben H., 58 

Ware, Jr., Rev. Henry, 102 

Wayland, Francis, D.D., 93 

Webster, Hon. Daniel, 106 

Wesley, Rev. John, 59 

Wirt, Hon. William, 97 

3 



PKEFACE. 



nnilE year 1885 has been designated as the centennial year of the 
Temperance Reform. One hundred years ago Dr. Benjamin 
Bosh, like a morning star appeared on the temperance horizon, 
and (hough with dim and feeble rays, yet ushered in the glorious day 
of the temperance reformation. From that little Rush light thousands 
of true, earnest workers received inspiration and courage, so that the 
next fifty years brought forth some of the grandest men, and witnessed 
the most eloquent, radical, and convincing utterances which the entire 
century has produced. To give just a glimmer from the bright and 
shining luminaries which shone with light resplendent fifty years and 
more ago was the object in compiling the " Foot-Prints of Temperance 
Pioneers." The undertaking, however, was too great. Our pages were 
more than full before the task was hardly commenced, and scissors, 
hatchet, and broad-axe were summoned for active work. A sample 
here and there will serve to show the spirit, determination, and conse- 
cration of the early fathers. They point the high-water-mark of the 
temperance reform. The task of compiling this little volume was un- 
dertaken at the last moment, and performed amid a great multiplicity 
of other cares, and is necessarily imperfect ; yet we rise from the effort 
with the profound conviction that the early temperance pioneers 

re more fully imbued with the knowledge of the character of in- 

icating liquors, their utter uselessness and unmitigated injury to 
tli*' human race, as a beverage, and the absolute necessity of their entire 

nn ination, than are multitudes of the generation now upon the 
earth. 

trust this little volume will inspire new faith and vigor, hope 

Lrage in all our hearts, and that the new century just opening 

re us will witness the universal triumph of the principle of total 

binenoe, and the entire suppression of the unholy and unrighteous 
traffic in intoxicating drinks. 



FOOT-PRINTS 

OF 

TEMPERANCE PIONEERS, 



BENJAMIN RUSH, M.D. 



DK. BENJAMIN PUSH, of Philadelphia, gave to the 
world his celebrated essay, entitled "The Effects of 
Ardent Spirits on the Human Body and Mind," in 
the year 1785. It was republished in the Gentleman- 's Maga- 
zine in England in 1786, and in a Philadelphia paper the 
same year. It passed through several editions, and one thou- 
sand copies were presented to the Presbyterian General As- 
sembly in 1811. Dr. Push visited various other religious 
bodies, presenting copies of his pamphlet, which created a 
profound impression. It largely stirred several of the early 
pioneers in the temperance cause, and although it was writ- 
ten only against distilled spirits, and not strong against fer- 
mented liquors, yet in that day it created a strong public 
sentiment against strong drink through the country. It was 
not long before the early fathers saw that fermented liquors 
were also the cause of drunkenness, disease, and death, and 
they governed themselves accordingly. This was the first 
published address against the use of the drink, and it is fit- 
ting that it should be the centennial mile-post of the tempe- 
rance reform. We publish the document entire, so that the 
friends of the cause may see the beginning of the work and 
be able to mark the line of improvement made in the light 
of the nineteenth century : 

By ardent spirits I mean those liquors only which are obtained 
by distillation from fermented substances of any kind. To their ef- 
fects upon the bodies and minds of men the following inquiry shall 
be exclusively confined. Fermented liquors contain so little spirit, 



6 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

and that so intimately combined with other matters, that they can sel- 
dom be drunken in sufficient quantities to produce intoxication and its 
subsequent effects without exciting a disrelish to their taste, or pain 
from their distending the stomach. They are, moreover, when taken in 
a moderate quantity, generally innocent, and often have a friendly in- 
fluence upon health and life. 

The effects of ardent spirits divide themselves into such as are of a 
prompt and such as are of a chronic nature. The former discover 
themselves in drunkenness, and the latter in a numerous train of 
diseases and vices of the body and mind. 

I. I shall begin by briefly describing their prompt or immediate 
effects in a fit of drunkenness. 

This odious disease (for by that name it should be called) appears 
with more or less of the following symptoms, and most commonly in 
the order in which I shall enumerate them : 

1. Unusual garrulity. 

2. Unusual silence. 

3. Captiousness and a disposition to quarrel. 

4. Uncommon good-humor, and an insipid simpering, or laugh. 

5. Profane swearing and cursing. 

G. A disclosure of their own or other people's secrets. 

7. A rude disposition to tell those persons in company whom they 
know their faults. 

8. Certain immodest actions. I am sorry to say this sign of the 
first stage of drunkenness sometimes appears in women who, when 
sober, are uniformly remarkable for chaste and decent manners. 

9. A clipping of words. 

10. Fighting ; a black eye or a swelled nose often mark this grade 
of drunkenness. 

11. Certain extravagant acts which indicate a temporary fit of mad- 
ness. These are singing, hallooing, roaring, imitating the noises of 
brute animals, jumping, tearing off clothes, dancing naked, breaking 

and china, and dashing other articles of household furniture 
n the ground or floor. After a while the paroxysm of drunkenness 
is completely formed. The face now becomes flushed — the eyes project, 
and are BOmewhat watery — winking is less frequent than is natural; the 
mider-lip is protruded — the head inclines a little to one shoulder — thci 
jaw fa IN — belch ings and hiccough take place — the limbs totter — the, 
whole body . The unfortunate subject of this history falls i 

on his seat — he looks around him with a vacant countenance, and mut- 
inarticulate sounds to himself — he attempts to rise and walk.- In 
mpl he tails upon hifl side, from which he gradually turns upor 
bis bade. He now closes his eyes and falls into a profound sleep, fre ■ 
quently attended with snoring and profuse sweats, and sometimes with : 
b a relaxation of the muscles which confine the bladder and thi 






Benjamin Rush, M.D. 7 

lower bowels as to produce a symptom which delicacy forbids me to 
mention. In this condition he often lies from ten, twelve, and twenty- 
four hours to two, three, four, and five days, an object of pity and dis- 
gust to his family and friends. His recovery from this fit of intoxica- 
tion is marked with several peculiar appearances. He opens his eyes, 
and closes them again — he gaps and stretches his limbs — he then coughs 
and pukes — his voice is hoarse — he rises with difficulty, and staggers to 
a ch^ir — his eyes resemble balls of fire — his hands tremble — he loathes 
the sight of food — he calls for a glass of spirits to compose his stomach 
— now and then he emits a deep-fetched sigh or groan from a transient 
twinge of conscience ; but he more frequently scolds, and curses every- 
thing around him. In this state- of languor and stupidity he remains for 
two or three days before he is able to resume his former habits of busi- 
ness and conversation. 

Pythagoras, we are told, maintained that the souls of men after 
death expiated the crimes committed by them in this world by ani- 
mating certain brute animals ; and that the souls of those animals, in 
their turns, enter into men, and carry with them all their peculiar 
qualities and vices. This doctrine of one of the wisest and best of the 
Greek philosophers was probably intended only to convey a lively idea 
of the changes which are induced in the body and mind of man by a fit 
of drunkenness. In folly it causes him to resemble a calf — in stupidity, 
an ass— in roaring, a mad bull — in quarrelling and fighting, a dog— in 
cruelty, a tiger — in fetor, a skunk — in filthiness, a hog — and in obsceni- 
ty, a he-goat. 

It belongs to the history of drunkenness to remark that its paroxysms 
occur, like the paroxysms of many diseases, at certain periods, and after 
longer or shorter intervals. They often begin with annual, and gradually 
increase in their frequency until they appear in quarterly, monthly, week- 
ly, and quotidian or daily periods. Finally, they afford scarcely any 
marks of remission either during the day or the night. There was a citizen 
of Philadelphia many years ago in whom drunkenness appeared in this 
protracted form. In speaking of him to one of his neighbors, I said: 
" Does he not sometimes get drunk ? " " You mean," said his neighbor, 
" is he not sometimes sober ? " 

It is further remarkable that drunkenness resembles certain heredi- 
tary, family, and contagious diseases. I have once known it to descend 
from a father to four out of five of his children. I have seen three, and 
once four, brothers, who were born of sober ancestors, affected by it, 
and I have heard of its spreading through a whole family composed of 
members not originally related to each other. These facts are important, 
and should not be overlooked by parents in deciding upon the matri- 
monial connections of their children. 

Let us next attend to the chronic effects of ardent spirits upon the 
body and mind. In the body they dispose to every form of acute 



8 Foot-Print® of Temperance Pioneers. 

disease; they moreover excite fevers in persons predisposed to them, 
from other causes. This lias been remarked in all the yellow fevers 
which have visited the cities of the United States. Hard drinkers sel- 
dom escape, and rarely recover from them. The following diseases are 
the usual consequences of the habitual use of ardent spirits — viz. : 

1. A decay of appetite, sickness at stomach, and a puking of bile, 
or a discharge of a frothy and viscid phlegm by hawking in the morn- 
ing. • 

2. Obstructions of the liver. The fable of Prometheus, on whose 
liver a vulture was said to prey constantly as a punishment for his steal- 
ing fire from heaven, was intended to illustrate the painful effects of 
ardent spirits upon that organ of the body. 

3. Jaundice and dropsy of the belly and limbs, and finally of every 
cavity in the body. A swelling in the feet and legs is so characteristic 
a mark of habits of intemperance that the merchants in Charleston, I 
have been told, cease to trust the planters of South Carolina as soon as 
they perceive it. They very naturally conclude industry and virtue to 
be extinct in that man in whom that symptom of disease has been pro- 
duced by the intemperate use of distilled spirits. 

4. Hoarseness and a husky cough, which often terminate in con- 
sumption, and sometimes in an acute and fatal disease of the lungs. 

5. Diabetes — that is, a frequent and weakening discharge of pale or 
sweetish urine. 

6. Redness, and eruptions on different parts of the body. They 
generally begin on the nose, and, after gradually extending all over the 
face, sometimes descend to the limbs in the form of leprosy. They have 
been called * ' Rum-buds" when they appear in the face. In persons 
who have occasionally survived these effects of ardent spirits on the 
skin the face after a while becomes bloated, and its redness is succeeded 
by a death-like paleness. Thus the same fire which produces a red 
color in iron, when urged to a more intense degree, produces what has 
been called a white heat. 

7. A fetid breath, composed of everything that is offensive in putrid 
animal matter. 

8. Frequent and disgusting belchings. Dr. Haller relates the case 
notorious drunkard having been suddenly destroyed in consequence 

of the vapor discharged from his stomach by belching accidentally 
taking fire by coming in contact with the flame of a candle. 

9. Epilepsy. 

10. (lout, in all its various forms of swelled limbs, colic, palsy, and 
apopL 

iy. 1 1. ^Uadness. The late Dr. Waters, while he acted as house 
pupil and apothecary of the Pennsylvania Hospital, assured me that in 
-third of the patients confined by this terrible disease it had been 
induced by ardenl spirits. 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. 9 

Most of the diseases which have been enumerated are of a mortal 
nature. They are more certainly induced, and terminate more speedily 
in death, when spirits are taken in such quantities, and at such times, 
as to produce frequent intoxication; but it may serve to remove an error 
with which some intemperate people console themselves to remark that 
ardent spirits often bring on fatal diseases without producing drunken- 
ness. I have known many persons destroyed by them who were never 
completely intoxicated during the whole course of their lives. The soli- 
tary instances of longevity which are now and then met with in hard 
drinkers no more disprove the deadly effects of ardent spirits .than the 
solitary instances of recoveries from apparent death by drowning prove 
that there is no danger to life ivoui a human body lying an hour or two 
under water. 

The body, after its death from the use of distilled spirits, exhibits 
by dissection certain appearances which are of a peculiar nature. The 
fibres of the stomach and bowels are contracted ; abscesses, gangrene, 
and scirrhi are found in the viscera. The bronchial vessels are con- 
tracted — the blood-vessels and tendons in many parts of the body are 
more or less ossified, and even the hair of the head possesses a crispness 
which renders it less valuable to wig-makers than the hair of sober peo- 
ple. 

Xot less destructive are the effects of ardent spirits upon the human 
mind. Thet impair the memory, debilitate the understanding, and 
pervert the moral faculties. It was probably from observing these 
effects of intemperance in drinking upon the mind that a law was 
formerly passed in Spain, which excluded drunkards from being wit- 
nesses in a court of justice. But the demoralizing effects of distilled 
spirits do not stop here. They produce not only falsehood, but fraud, 
theft, uncleanliness, and murder. Like the demoniac mentioned in the 
New Testament, their name is "Legion," for they convey into the soul 
a host of vices and crimes. 

A more affecting spectacle cannot be exhibited than a person into 
whom this infernal spirit, generated by habits of intemperance, has en- 
tered. It is more or less affecting according to the station the person 
fills in a family, or in society, who is possessed by it. Is he a husband? 
How deep the anguish which rends the bosom of his wife ! Is she a 
wife ? Who can measure the shame and aversion which she excites in 
her husband ? Is he the father, or is she the mother of a family of chil- 
dren ? See their averted looks from their parent, and their blushing 
looks at each other ! Is he a magistrate ? or has he been chosen to fill 
a high and respectable station in the councils of his country ? What 
humiliating fears of corruption in the administration of the laws, and of 
the subversion of public order and happiness, appear in the countenances 
of all who see him ! Is he a minister of the Gospel ? Here language 
fails me. If angels weep, it is at such a sight. 



10 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

In painting out the evils produoed by ardent spirits let us not pass 
by their effects upon the estates of the persons who are addicted to them. 
Are they inhabit ant sot' cities ? Behold! their houses stripped gradually 
of their furniture and pawned or Bold by a constable to pay tavern 
debts. See their names upon record in the dockets of every court, and 
whole pages of newspapers filled with advertisements of their estates for 
public sale. Are they inhabitants of country places? Behold! their 
houses with shattered windows, their barns with leaky roofs, their gar- 
dens overrun with weeds, their fields with broken fences, their hogs 
without yokes, their sheep without wool, their cattle and horses without 
fat, and their children filthy and half clad, without manners, principles, 
and morals. This picture of agricultural wretchedness is seldom of long 
duration. The farms and property thus neglected and depreciated are 
seized and sold for the benefit of a group of creditors. The children 
that were born with the prospect of inheriting them are bound out to 
service in the neighborhood ; while their parents, the unworthy authors 
of their misfortunes, ramble into new and distant settlements, alternately 
fed on their way by the hand of charity or a little casual labor. 

Thus we see poverty and misery, crimes and infamy, diseases and 
death, are all the natural and usual consequences of the intemperate use 
of ardent spirits. 

I have classed death among the consequences of hard drinking. But 
it is not death from the immediate hand of the Deity, nor from any of 
the instruments of it which were created by Him. It is death from 
suicide. Yes, thou poor degraded creature, who art daily lifting the 
poisoned bowl to thy lips, cease to avoid the unhallowed ground in which 
the self-murderer is interred and wonder no longer that the sun should 
shine, and the rain fall, and the grass look green upon his grave. Thou 
art perpetrating gradually, by the use of ardent spirits, what he has 
effected suddenly by opium or a halter. Considering how many cir- 
cumstances from surprise or derangement may palliate his guilt, or 
that (unlike yours) it was not preceded and accompanied by any other 
crime, it is probable his condemnation will be less than yours at the day 
of judgment. 

I shall now take notice of the occasions and circumstances which are 
supposed to render the use of ardent spirits necessary, and endeavor to 
show that the arguments in favor of their use in such cases are founded 
in error, and that in each of them ardent spirits, instead of affording 
strength to the body, increase the evils they are intended to relieve. 

1. They are said to be necessary in very cold weather. This is far from 
being true, for the temporary warmth they produce is always succeeded 
by a greater disposition in the body to be affected by cold. Warm 
dresses, a plentiful meal just before exposure to the cold, and eating oc- 

ionally a little gingerbread, or any other cordial food, is a much more 
durable method of preserving the heat of the body in cold weather. 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. li 

2. They are said to be necessary in very warm weather. Experience 
proves that they increase, instead of lessening the effects of heat upon 
the body, and thereby dispose to disease of all kinds. Even in the warm 
climate of the West Indies, Dr. Bell asserts this to be true. "Rum," 
says this author, "whether used habitually, moderately, or in excessive 
quantities in the West Indies, always diminishes the strength of the 
body, and renders men more susceptible of disease, and unfit for any 
service in which vigor or activity is required."* As well might we 
throw oil into a house, the roof of which was on fire, in order to prevent 
the flames from extending to its inside as pour ardent spirits into the 
stomach to lessen the effects of a hot sun upon the skin. 

3. Xor do ardent spirits lessen the effects of hard labor upon the 
body. Look at the horse; with every muscle of his body swelled from 
morning till night in the plough, or a team, does he make signs for a 
draught of toddy, or a glass of spirits to enable him to cleave the ground 
or to climb a hill ? No ; he requires nothing but cool water and sub- 
stantial food. There is no nourishment in ardent spirits. The strength 
they produce in labor is of a transient nature, and is always followed by 
a sense of weakness and fatigue. 

But are there no conditions of the human body in which ardent 
spirits may be given? I answer, There are. 1st. When the body has 
been suddenly exhausted of its strength, and a disposition to faintness 
has been induced. Here a few spoonfuls or a wine-glassful of spirits, 
with or without water, may be administered with safety and advantage. 
In this case we comply strictly with the advice of Solomon, who restricts 
the use of "strong drink" only "to him who is ready to perish." 
2d. When the body has been exposed for a long time to wet weather, 
more especially if it be combined with cold. Here a moderate quantity 
of spirits is not only safe but highly proper to obviate debility and to 
prevent a fever. They will more certainly have those salutary effects, 
if the feet are at the same time bathed with them, or a half pint of them 
poured into the shoes or boots. These, I believe, are the only two cases 
in which distilled spirits are useful or necessary to persons in health. 

Part II. 

But it may be said, if we reject spirits from being a part of our 
drinks, what liquors shall we substitute in their room? I answer, in the 
first place : 

1. Simple Water. — I have known many instances of persons who 
have followed the most laborious employments for many years, in the 
open air, and in warm and cold weather, who never drank anything but 
water, and enjoyed uninterrupted good health. Dr. Mosely, who re- 

* Sec his " Inquiry into the causes which produce; and the means of preventing, 
diseases among British officers, soldiers, and others in the West Indies.' 1 



12 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

Bided many years in llio West indies, confirms this remark. "I aver," 
ps the doctor, " from my own knowledge and custom, as well as the 
custom ami observations ol many other people, that those who drink 
nothing but water, pr make it their principal drink, arc little affected 
by the climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue without incon- 
venience, and are never subject to troublesome or dangerous dis- 

I\ rsons who are unable to relish this simple beverage of nature 
may drink some one or of all the following liquors in preference to ar- 
dent spirits: 

'J. Cider. — This excellent liquor contains a small quantity of spirit, 
but so diluted and blunted by being combined with a large quantity of 
saccharine matter and water as to be perfectly wholesome. It some- 
times disagrees with persons subject to the rheumatism, but it may be 
made inoffensive to such people by extinguishing a red-hot iron in it or 
by mixing it with water. 

3. Malt Liquors. — The grain from which these liquors are ob- 
tained is not liable, like the apple, to be affected by frost, and, there- 
fore, they can be procured at all times, and at a moderate price. They 
contain a good deal of nourishment ; hence we find many of the poor 
people in Great Britain endure hard labor with no other food than a 
quart or three pints of beer> with a few pounds of bread in a day. As 
it will be difficult to prevent small beer from becoming sour in warm 
weather, an excellent substitute may be made for it by mixing bottled 
porter, ale, or strong beer with an equal quantity of water; or a plea- 
sant beer may be made by adding to a bottle of porter ten quarts of 
water and a pound of brown sugar or a pint of molasses. After they 
have been well mixed pour the liquor into bottles and place them, loosely 
corked, in a cool cellar. In two or three days it will be fit for use. A 
spoonful of ginger added to the mixture renders it more lively and 
agreeable to the taste. 

4. WlNBS. — These fermented liquors are composed of the same in- 
gredients as cider, and are both cordial and nourishing. The peasants 
of France, who drink them in large quantities, are a sober and healthy 
body of people. Unlike ardent spirits, which render the temper irri- 
table, wines generally inspire cheerfulness and good-humor. It is to be 
lamented that the grape has not as yet been sufficiently cultivated in our 
country to afford wine for our citizens; but many excellent substitutes 

be made Cor it from the native fruits of all the States. If two bar- 

<>f cider U^A\ from the press are boiled into one and afterwards fer- 

I'or two or three years in a dry cellar it affords a liquor 

which, according to the quality of the apple from which the cider is 

lie taste of Malaga, or Rhenish wine. It affords, when 

mixed with water, a most agreeable drink in summer. I have taken the 

liberty of calling it Pomona Wine. There is another method of making 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. 13 

a pleasant wine from the apple by adding four-and-twenty gallons of 
new cider to three gallons of syrup made from the expressed juice of 
sweet apples. When thoroughly fermented and kept for a few years 
it becomes fit for use. The blackberry of our fields and the raspberry 
and currant of our gardens afford likewise an agreeable and wholesome 
wine when pressed and mixed with certain proportions of sugar and 
water and a little spirit to counteract the disposition to an excessive fer- 
mentation. It is no objection to these cheap and home-made wines that 
they are unfit for use until they are two or three years old. The foreign 
wines in common use in our country require not only a much longer 
time to bring them to perfection, but to prevent their being disagreeable 
even to the taste. 

5. Molasses and Water, also Vinegar and Water, sweetened with 
sngar or molasses, form an agreeable drink in warm weather. It is 
pleasant and cooling, and tends to keep up those gentle and uniform 
sweats on which health and life often depend. Vinegar and water con- 
stituted the only drink of the soldiers of the Roman republic, and it is 
well known they marched and fought in a warm climate, and beneath a 
load of arms which weighed sixty pounds, Boaz, a wealthy farmer in 
Palestine, we find treated his reapers with nothing but bread dipped 
in vinegar. To such persons as object to the taste of vinegar, sour milk, 
or buttermilk, or sweet milk diluted with water may be given in its 
stead. I have known the labor of the longest and hottest days in sum- 
mer supported by means of these pleasant and wholesome drinks with 
great firmness, and ended with scarcely a complaint of fatigue. 

6. The Sugar-Maple affords a thin juice which has long been used 
by the farmers of Connecticut as a cool and refreshing drink in the time 
of harvest. The settlers in the western counties of the Middle States 
will do well to let a few of the trees which yield this pleasant juice re- 
main in all their fields. They may prove the means not only of saving 
their children and grandchildren many hundred pounds, but of saving 
their bodies from disease and death and cheir souls from misery beyond 
the grave. 

7. Coffee possesses agreeable and exhilarating qualities, and might 
be used with great advantage to obviate the painful effects of heat, cold, 
and fatigue upon the body. I once knew a country physician who made 
it a practice to drink a pint of strong coffee previous to his taking a long 
or cold ride. It was more cordial to him than spirits, in any of the 
forms in which they are commonly used. 

The use of the cold bath in the morning and of the warm bath in the 
evening are happily calculated to strengthen the body in the former 
part of the day and to restore it in the latter from the languor and fa- 
tigue which are induced by heat and labor. 

Let it not be said ardent spirits have become necessary from habit in 
harvest and in other seasons of uncommon and arduous labor. The 



14 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

habit is a bad one, and may be easily broken. Let but half a dozen 
fanners in a neighborhood combine to allow higher wages to their la- 
borers than are common and a sufficient quantity of any of the pleasant 
and wholesome liquors 1 have recommended, and they may soon, by their 

mple, abolish the practice of giving them spirits. In a little while 
they will be delighted with the good elleets of their association. Their 

in and hay will be gathered into their barns in less time and in a bet- 
ter condition than formerly, and of course at a less expense, and a hun- 
dred disagreeable scenes from sickness, contention, and accidents will 
be avoided, all of which follow, in a greater or less degree, the use of 
ardent spirits. 

Nearly all diseases have their predisposing causes. The same thing 
maybe said of the intemperate use of distilled spirits. It will, there- 
fore, be useful to point out the different employments, situations, and 
conditions of the body and mind which predispose to the love of 
those liquors, and to accompany them with directions to prevent per- 
sons being ignorantly and undesignedly seduced into the habitual and 
destructive use of them. 

1. Laborers bear with great difficulty long intervals between their 
meals. To enable them to support the waste of their strength their 
stomachs should be constantly, but moderately, stimulated by aliment, 
and this is best done by their eating four or five times in a day during 
the seasons of great bodily exertion. The food at this time should be 
solid, consisting chiefly of salted meat. The vegetables used with it 
should possess some activity, or they should be made savory by a mix- 
ture of spices. Onions and garlic are of a most cordial nature. They 
composed a part of the diet which enabled the Israelites to endure, in a 
warm climate, the heavy tasks imposed upon them by their Egyptian 
masters ; and they were eaten, Horace and Virgil tell us, by the 
Roman farmers to repair the waste of their strength by the toils of 
harvest. There are likewise certain sweet substances which support 
the body under the pressure of labor. The negroes in the West Indies 

tome strong, and even fat, by drinking the juice of the sugar-cane in 
the season of grinding it. The Jewish soldiers were invigorated by 
occasionally eating raisins and figs. A bread composed of wheat flour, 
molasses, and ginger (commonly called ginger-bread), taken in small 
quantities during the day, is happily calculated to obviate the debility 
induced upon the body by constant labor. All these substances, 
whether of an animal or vegetable nature, lessen the desire as well as 
tip rdiaJ drinks, and impart equable and durable 

tern. 

'-. Vah-t udinariai illy those who are afflicted with diseases of 

the stomach and 1 re very apt to seek relief from ardent spirits. 

Let such people be cautious how they make use of this dangerous 
remedy. I have known many men and women of excellent characters 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. 15 

and principles, who have been betrayed by occasional doses of gin and 
brandy into a love of those liquors, and have afterwards fallen sacri- 
fices to their fatal effects. The different preparations of opium are 
much more safe and efficacious than distilled cordials of any kind in 
flatulent or spasmodic affections of the stomach and bowels. So great 
is the danger of contracting a love for distilled liquors by accustoming 
the stomach to their stimulus that as few medicines as possible should 
be given in spirituous vehicles in chronic diseases. A physician of 
great eminence and uncommon worth, who died toward the close of the 
last century in London, in taking leave of a young physician of this 
city, who had finished his studies under his patronage, impressed this 
caution with peculiar force upon him, and lamented at the same time, in 
pathetic terms, that he had innocently made many sots by prescribing 
brandy and water in stomach complaints. It is difficult to tell how 
many persons have been destroyed by those physicians who have adopted 
Dr. Brown's indiscriminate practice in the use of stimulating remedies, 
the most popular of which is ardent spirits ; but it is well known 
several of them have died of intemperance in this city since the year 
1790. They were probably led to it by drinking brandy and water to 
relieve themselves from the frequent attacks of debility and indisposi- 
tion to which the labors of a physician expose him, and for which rest, 
fasting, a gentle purge, or weak diluting drinks would have been 
more safe and more certain cures. 

None of these remarks are intended to preclude the use of spirits in 
the low state of short, or what are called acute diseases; for in such 
cases they produce their effects too soon to create an habitual desire for 
them. 

3. Some people, from living in countries subject to intermitting 
fevers, endeavor to fortify themselves against them by taking two or 
three wine-glasses of bitters, made with spirits, every day. There is 
great danger of contracting habits of intemperance from this practice. 
Besides, this mode of preventing intermittents is far from being a cer- 
tain one ; a much better security against them is a teaspoonful of the 
Jesuit's-bark, taken every morning during a sickly season. If this safe 
and excellent medicine cannot be had, a gill or half a pint of strong 
watery infusion of centaury, camomile, wormwood, or rne, mixed with 
a little of the calamus of our meadows, may be taken every morning 
with nearly the same advantage as the Jesuit's-bark. Those persons 
who live in a sickly country, and cannot procure any of the preven- 
tives of autumnal fevers, which have been mentioned, should avoid the 
morning and evening air — should kindle fires in their houses on damp 
days, and in cool evenings throughout the whole summer, and put on 
winter clothes about the first week in September. The last part 
of these directions applies only to the inhabitants of the Middle 
States. 



1G Footprints of Temperance Pioneers. 

4. Men who follow professions which require constant exercise of 
the faculties of their mindfi are very apt to seek relief by the us£of 
ardent spirits from the fatigue which succeeds great mental exertions. 
To such persons it may be a discovery to know that tea is a much 
belter remedy tor that purpose. By its grateful and gentle stimulus 
it removes fatigue, restores the excitement of the mind, and invigorates 
the whole system. 1 am no advocate for the excessive use of .tea. 
When taken too strong it is hurtful, especially to the female constitu- 
tion ; but when taken of a moderate degree of strength, and in mode- 
rate quantities, with sugar and cream, or milk, I believe it is in general 
innoxious, and at all times to be preferred to ardent spirits as a cordial 
for studious men. The late Anthony Benezet, one of the most labori- 
ous school-masters I ever knew, informed me he had been prevented 
from the love of spirituous liquors by acquiring a love for tea in early 
life. Three or four cups, taken in an afternoon, carried off the fatigue 
of a whole day's labor in his school. This worthy man lived to be 
seventy-one years of age, and died of an acute disease, with the full ex- 
ercise of all the faculties of his mind. But the use of tea counteracts a 
desire for distilled spirits during great bodily as well as mental exer- 
tions. Of this Captain Forest has furnished us with a recent and re- 
markable proof in his history of a voyage from Calcutta to the Marqui 
Archipelago : "I have always observed" (says this ingenious mariner), 
" when sailors drink tea it weans them from the thoughts of drinking 
strong liquors and pernicious grog ; and with this they are soon con- 
tented. Not so with whatever will intoxicate, be it what it will. This 
has always been my remark : I therefore always encourage it without 
their knowing why." 

5. Women have sometimes been led to seek relief from what is call- 
ed breeding sickness by the use of ardent spirits. A little gingerbread 
or biscuit taken occasionally, so as to prevent the stomach being empty, 
is a much better remedy for that disease. 

G. Persons under the pressure of debt, disappointments in worldly 
pursuits, and guilt have sometimes sought to drown their sorrows in 

mg drink. The only radical cure for those evils is* to be found in 
: but where its support is not resorted to wine and opium 
should always be preferred to ardent spirits. They are far less injuri- 
ous to the body and mind than spirits ; and the habits of attachment 
to them are easily broken after time and repentance have removed the 
evils they were taken to relieve. 

7. The sociable and imitative nature of man often disposes him to 
adopt thenosl odious and destructive practices from his companions. 
The French soldiers who conquered Holland, in the year 1794, brought 
back with them the love and use of brandy, and thereby corrupted the 
inhabit.! ran] of the departments of Prance who had been pre- 

nsly distinguished for their temperate and sober manners. Many 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. 17 

other facts might be mentioned to show how important it is to avoid 
the company of persons addicted to the use of ardent spirits. 

8. Smoking and chewing tobacco, by rendering water and simple 
liquors insipid to the taste, dispose very much to the stronger stimulus 
of ardent spirits. The practice of smoking cigars has, in every part of 
our country, been followed by a general use of brandy and water, as a 
common drink, more especially by that class of citizens who have not 
been in the habit of drinking wine or malt liquors. The less, there- 
fore, tobacco is used in the above ways the better. 

9. Xo man ever became suddenly a drunkard. It is by gradually 
accustoming the taste and stomach to ardent spirits, in the forms of 
grog and toddy, that men have been led to love them in their more 
destructive mixtures and in their simple state. Under the impression 
of this truth, were it possible for me to speak, with a voice so loud as 
to be heard from the river St. Croix to the remotest shores of the 
Mississippi, I would say : Friends and fellow-citizens ! avoid the 
habitual use of those two seducing liquors, whether they be made with 
brandy, rum, gin, Jamaica spirits, whiskey, or what is called cherry- 
bounce. It is true some men, by limiting the strength of those drinks, 
by measuring the spirit and water, have drunken them for many years, 
and even during a long life, without acquiring habits of intemperance 
or intoxication ; but many more have been insensibly led, by drinking 
weak toddy and grog, first at their meals, to take them for their con- 
stant drink in the intervals of their meals ; afterwards to take them, of 
an increased strength, before breakfast in the morning, and finally to 
destroy themselves by drinking undiluted spirits during every hour of 
the day and night. lam not singular in this remark. "The conse- 
quences of drinking rum and water, or grog, as it is called (says Dr. 
Mosely), is, that habit increases the desire of more spirit, and decreases 
its effects ; and there are few grog-drinkers who long survive the 
practice of debauching with it without acquiring the odious nuisance 
of dram-drinker's breath and downright stupidity and impotence."* 
To enforce the caution against the use of those two apparently innocent 
and popular liquors still further, I shall select one instance, from 
among many, to show the ordinary manner in which they beguile and 
destroy their votaries. A citizen of Philadelphia, once of a fair and 
sober character, drank toddy for many years as his constant drink. 
From this he proceeded to drink grog. After a while nothing would 
satisfy him but slings made of equal parts of rum and water, with a 
little sugar. From slings he advanced to raw rum. and from common 
rum to Jamaica spirits. Here he rested for a few months, but at 
length, finding even Jamaica spirits were not strong enough to warm 
his stomach, he made it a constant practice to throw a tablespoonful of 
ground pepper into each glass of his spirits, in order, to use his own 

* Treatise on tropical diseases. 



IS Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

•• bo take off their coldness." Ue soon afterwards died a martyr 
to his intemperau 

Minister! of the gospel, of every denomination in the United States, 
aid me with all the weight you possess in society, from the dignity and 
usefulness of your sacred office, to save our fellow-men from being de- 
stroyed by the great destroyer of their lives and souls. In order more 
— fully to effect this purpose permit me to suggest to you to em- 
ploy the same wise modes of instruction which you use in your at- 
tempts to prevent their destruction by other vices. You expose the 
evils of covetousness in order to prevent theft ; you point out the sin- 
fulness of impure desires in order to prevent adultery ; and you dis- 
suade from anger and malice in order to prevent murder. In like 
manner denounce, by your preaching, conversation, and examples, the 
seducing influence of toddy and grog, when you aim to prevent all the 
crimes and miseries which are the offspring of strong drink. 

We have hitherto considered the effects of ardent spirits upon indi- 
viduals, and the means of preventing them. I shall close this head of 
our inquiry by a few remarks on their effects upon the population and 
welfare of our country, and the means of obviating them. 

It is highly probable not less than four thousand people die an- 
nually from the use of ardent spirits in the United States. Should 
they continue to exert this deadly influence upon our population, where 
will their evils terminate ? This question may be answered by asking, 
where are all the Indian tribes whose numbers and arms formerly 
spread terror among their civilized neighbors ? I answer in the words 
of the famous Mingo chief, "The blood of many of them flows not in 
the veins of any human creature." They have perished, not by pesti- 
lence, nor war, but by a greater foe to human life than either of them — 
ardent spirits. The loss of four thousand American citizens by the 
yellow fever in a single year awakened general sympathy and terror, 
and called forth all the strength and ingenuity of laws to prevent its 
recurrence. Why is not the same zeal manifested in protecting our citi- 
zens from the more general and consuming ravages of distilled spirits ? 
Should the customs of civilized life preserve our nation from extinction, 
and even from an increase of mortality, by those liquors, they cannot 
prevent our country being governed by men chosen by intemperate and 
corrupted voters. From such legislators, the republic would soon be 
in danger. To avert this evil let good men of every class unite and 
the general and state governments with petitions to limit the 
number of taverns, to impose heavy duties upon ardent spirits, to in- 
flict a mark of disgrace or a temporary abridgment of some civil right 
upon every man convicted of drunkenness, and, finally, to secure the 

perty of habitual drunkards, for the benefit of their families, by 
placing it in the hands of trustees appointed for that purpose by a 
court of justice. 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. 19 

To aid the operation of these laws, would it not be extremely useful 
for the rulers of the different denominations of Christian churches to 
unite, and render the sale and consumption of ardent spirits a subject of 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction ? The Methodists and Society of Friends 
have for some time past viewed them as contraband articles to the pure 
laws of the Gospel, and have borne many public and private testimonies 
against making them the objects of commerce. Their success in this 
benevolent enterprise affords ample encouragement for all other reli- 
gious societies to follow their example. 

Part III. 

We come now to the third part of this inquiry ; that is, to mention 
the remedies for the evils which are brought on by the excessive use of 
distilled spirits. These remedies divide themselves into two kinds: 

I. Such as are proper to cure a fit of drunkenness ; and 

II. Such as are proper to prevent its recurrence, and to destroy a 
desire for ardent spirits. 

I. I am aware that the efforts of science and humanity, in applying 
their resources to the cure of a disease induced by ah act of vice, will 
meet with a cold reception from many people. But let such people 
remember the subjects of our remedies are their fellow-creatures, and 
that the miseries brought upon human nature by its crimes are as 
much the objects of divine compassion (which we are bound to imitate) 
as the distresses which are brought upon men by the crimes of other 
people, or which they bring upon themselves by ignorance or accidents. 
Let us not, then, pass by the prostrate sufferer from strong drink, but 
administer to him the same relief we would afford to a fellow-creature 
in a similar state from an accidental and innocent cause. 

1. The first thing to be done to cure a fit of drunkenness is to open 
the collar, if in a man, and remove all tight ligatures from every other 
part of the body. The head and shoulders should at the same time be 
elevated, so as to favor a more feeble determination of the blood to the 
brain. 

2. The contents of the stomach should be discharged by thrusting a 
feather down the throat. It often restores the patient immediately to 
his senses and feet. Should it fail of exciting a puking, 

3. A napkin should be wrapped round the head, and wetted an 
hour or two with cold water, or cold water should be poured in a stream 
upon the head. In the latter way I have sometimes seen it used, when 
a boy, in the city of Philadelphia. It was applied by dragging the 
patient, when found drunk in the street, to a pump and pumping water 
upon his head for ten or fifteen minutes. The patient generally rose 
and walked off, sober and sullen, after the use of this remedy. 

Other remedies, less common, but not less effectual for a fit of 
drunkenness, are ; 



20 Footprints of Temperance Pioneers. 

4. Plunging the whole body into cold water. — A number of gentle- 
men who had drunken to intoxication on board of a ship in the stream 
near Fell's Point, at Baltimore, in consequence of their reeling in a small 
boat on their way to the shore in the evening, overset it and fell into 
the water. Several boats from the shore hurried to their relief . They 
were all picked up, and went home perfectly sober to their families. 

5. Terror. — A number of young merchants who had drunken to- 
gether in a counting-house on James River, about thirty years ago, 
until they were intoxicated, were carried away by a sudden rise of the 
river from an immense fall of rain. They floated several miles with the 
current in their little cabin, half filled with water. An island in the 
river arrested it. When they reached the shore that saved their lives 
they were all sober. It is probable terror assisted in the cure of the 
persons who fell into the water at Baltimore. 

6. The excitement of a fit of anger. — The late Dr. Witherspoon used 
to tell a story of a man in Scotland who was always cured of a fit of 
drunkenness by being made angry. The mean chosen for that purpose 
was a singular one. It was talking against religion. 

7. A severe whipping. — This remedy acts by exciting a revulsion of 
the blood from the brain to the external parts of the body. 

8. Profuse sweats. — By means of this evacuation nature sometimes 
cures a fit of drunkenness. Their good effects are obvious in laborers, 
whom quarts of spirits taken in a day will seldom intoxicate, while they 
sweat freely. If the patient be unable to swallow warm drinks in order 
to produce sw r eats, they may be excited by putting him in a warm bath 
or wrapping his body in blankets, under which should be placed half a 
dozen hot bricks or bottles filled with hot water. 

9. Bleeding. — This remedy should always be used where the former 
ones have been prescribed to no purpose, or where there is reason to fear, 
from the long duration of the disease, a material injury may be done to 
the brain. 

It is hardly necessary to add that each of the above remedies should 
be regulated by the grade of drunkenness, and the greater or less degree 
in which the intellects are affected in it. 

II. I shall briefly mention some of the remedies which are proper to 
prevent the recurrence of fits of drunkenness, and to destroy the desire 
• spirits : 

1. Many hundred drunkards have been cured of their desire for 
ardent spirits l>y a practical belief in the doctrines of the Christian 
religion. Examples of the divine efficacy of Christianity for this pur- 
pose have lately occurred in many parts of the United States. 

2. A sudden sense of the guilt contracted by drunkenness, and of its 
punishment in a future world. — It once cured a gentleman in Phila- 
delphia, who in a fit of drunkenness attempted to murder a wife whom 
};• loved* Upon being told of it when he was sober he was so struck 



Benjamin Rush, M.D. 21 

with the enormity of the crime he had nearly committed that he never 
tasted spirituous liquors afterwards. 

3. A sudden sense of shame. — Of the efficacy of this deep-seated 
principle in the human bosom in curing drunkenness 1 shall relate 
three remarkable instances : 

A farmer in England, who had been many years in the practice of 
coming home intoxicated from a market town, one day observed appear- 
ances of rain while he was in market. His hay was cut and ready to be 
housed. To save it he returned in haste to his farm before he had taken 
his customary dose of grog. Upon coming into his house one of his 
children, a little boy of six years old, ran to his mother and cried out : 
" mother! father is come home, and he is not drunk! " The father, 
who heard this exclamation, was so severely rebuked by it that he sud- 
denly became a sober man. 

A noted drunkard was once followed by a favorite goat to a tavern, 
into which he was invited by his master and drenched with some of his 
liquor. The poor animal staggered home with his master, a good deal 
intoxicated. The next day he followed him to his accustomed tavern. 
When the goat came to the door he paused ; his master made signs to 
him to follow him into the house. The goat stood still. An attempt 
was made to thrust him into the tavern. He resisted, as if struck with 
the recollection of what he suffered from being intoxicated the night 
before. His master was so much affected by a sense of shame, in observ- 
ing the conduct of his goat to be so much more rational than his own, 
that he ceased from that time to drink spirituous liquors. 

A gentleman in one of the Southern States, who had nearly destroyed 
himself by strong drink, was remarkable for exhibiting the grossest 
marks of folly in his fits of intoxication. One evening, sitting in his 
parlor, he heard an uncommon noise in his kitchen. He went to the 
door and peeped through the key-hole, from whence he saw one of his 
negroes diverting his fellow-servants by mimicking his master's gestures 
and conversation when he was drunk. The sight overwhelmed him with 
shame and distress, and instantly became the means of his reforma- 
tion. 

4. The association of the idea of ardent spirits, with a painful or dis- 
agreeable impression upon some part of the body, has sometimes cured 
the love of strong drink. I once tempted a negro man, who was ha- 
bitually fond of ardent spirits, to drink some rum (which I placed in his 
way), and in which 1 had put a few grains of tartar emetic. The tartar 
sickened and puked him to such a degree that he supposed himself to 
be poisoned. I was much gratified by observing he could not bear the 
sight nor smell of spirits for two years afterwards. 

Our knowledge of this principle of association upon the minds and 
conduct of men should lead us to destroy, by means of other impressions, 
the influence of all those circumstances with which the recollection and 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

desire of spirits are combined. Some men drink only in the morning, 
some at noon, and some at night. Some men drink only on a market 
day, some at one tavern only, and some only in one kind of company. 
Now by finding a new and interesting employment or subject of con- 
ion for drunkards at the usual times in which they have been 
ftOOQfitomed to drink, and by restraining them by the same means from 
i nd companions which suggested to them the idea of 
ardent spirits, their habits of intemperance maybe completely destroyed. 
In the same way the periodical returns of appetite and a desire of sleep 
have been destroyed in a hundred instances. The desire for strong 
drink di tiers from each of them in being of an artificial nature, and 
therefore not disposed to return after being chased for a few weeks from 
the system. 

5. Blisters to the ankles, which were followed by an unusual degree 
of inflammation, once suspended the love of ardent spirits for one 
month in a lady in this city. The degrees of her intemperance may be 
conceived of when I add that her grocer's account, for brandy alone, 
amounted annually to one hundred pounds, Pennsylvania currency, for 
several years. 

6. An advantage would probably arise from frequent representations 
being made to drunkards not only of the certainty, but of the sudden- 
ness of death from habits of intemperance. I have heard of two persons 
being cured of the love of ardent spirits by seeing death suddenly in- 
duced by fits of intoxication — in the one case in a stranger, and in the 
other in an intimate friend. 

7. It has been said that the disuse of spirits should be gradual ; but 
my observations authorize me to say that persons who have been ad- 
dicted to them should abstain from them suddenly and entirely. " Taste 
not, handle not, touch not," should be inscribed upon every vessel that 
contains spirits in the house of a man who wishes to be cured of habits 
of intemperance. To obviate for a while the debility which arises from 
the sudden abstraction of the stimulus of spirits, laudanum, or bitters 
infused in water, should be taken, and perhaps a larger quantity of beer 
or wine than is consistent with the strict rules of temperate living. By 
the temporary use of these substitutes for spirits, I have never known 
the transition to sober habits to be attended with any bad effects, but 
often with permanent health of body and peace of mind. 



The American Quarterly Magazine of February, 1834, said that 

nearly two thousand physicians in Europe and America had expressed 

the opinion that men in health are never benefited by the use of intoxi- 

and that their effect on the human system is to produce 

or aggravate disease. 



PROF. MOSES STUART, D.D. 



IN the year 1830 a benevolent individual offered a pre- 
mium of $250 for the best essay on the following ques- 
tion : 

"Is it consistent icith a profession of the Christian reli- 
gion for persons to use, as an article of luxury or of living, 
distilled liquors, or to traffic in them ? And is it consistent 
with duty for the churches of Christ to admit those as mem- 
lers who continue to do this ?" 

More than forty manuscripts were presented, and the 
premium was awarded to Moses Stuart, D.D., Associate 
Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary, 
Andover, Mass. 

This essay occupied seventy octavo pages and produced a 
profound impression upon the community. After a careful 
investigation of the various passages in the Bible referring 
to wiue, he said : 

"\Let us now review the progress which we have made. "We have 
taken a full view of the intoxicating drinks and wines in use among the 
ancient Hebrews, and of the precepts contained in the Scriptures 
which have respect to them. We have seen that the Bible prohibits 
intemperance in drinking by the most awful penalties in respect both 
to time and eternity. We have also seen that priests, magistrates (for 
such are kings and princes — Prov. xxxi. 4), and Xazarites were required, 
even in ancient times, totally to abstain from wine and strong drink 
while in the discharge of their appropriate duties, and while sustaining 
their appropriate character. We have found by comparison that our 
inebriating liquors, obtained by distillation, are much more powerful 
than those which the Hebrews made use of, and which were obtained 
only by fermentation. In particular we find that most of our wines 
which are much sought after differ so essentially from theirs, in conse- 
quence of having distilled spirit mixed with them, that ours may fairly 
come under the denomination of intoxicating drinks ; while theirs were 
not deserving of this appellation, in the common sense which usage has 
affixed to it. 

" In answer, then, to the principal question which we are now inves- 

23 



24 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

titrating — viz,, In what light is tho use of intoxicating liquors to be 
viewed? — we may say (so far as the Scriptures are concerned) that the 
use of them in every form and manner, so as to occasion any degree of 
intoxication, is most fully and entirely prohibited. We may further 
say that no precept and no example can be brought from the Scrip- 
tures to show that the habitual use in any way of liquor properly called 
intoxicating is allowed. The most that can be made out in this way 
is that once in a year, on an occasion of general thanksgiving, the 
moderate use of strong drink was permitted. Finally, we are brought 
to the certain conclusion that all persons conspicuous in church or 
state, who were designed to be special examples of piety, or were em- 
ployed in the public duties of religion or of civil office, were strictly 
enjoined to practice total abstinence while in their appropriate stations." 

Referring to the fact that " the God of nature " has for- 
bidden intemperance by the manner in which He has formed 
our physical constitution, he says : 

"It is now well known by all enlightened physiologists that the 
strength and refreshment which the body receives from food and drink 
are the result of supplying the worn-out particles of the human system 
with new ones which take their place. The blood is made the vehicle 
of conveying the new recruits to our system, and of carrying away the 
old ones w T hich are exhausted, at one and the same time — a mechanism 
that is enough to confound all the atheists that ever lived, and to con- 
strain the most strenuous unbeliever to cry out, It is true, indeed, that 
we are fearfully and wonderfully made ! 

"Now, whatever substances are capable of being received by the 
stomach and converted into chyle, and then of being taken up by the 
blood-vessels and appropriated to nourishment, these refresh and in- 
vigorate the body ; and those which are not capable of this do neither 
refresh nor invigorate to any good and lasting purpose. 

" Such is the simple and wonderful construction of our bodies. Is it, 
then, an arrangement of the God of nature that alcoholic substances 
can be digested and appropriated to our nourishment and support ? 

" The answer to the question is now plain and certain. Alcohol is 
not appropriated by the stomach and other organs concerned with 
digestion to any purposes of nutriment. Our physical system revolts 
at it, and in every part makes effort to throw it off as soon as possible. 
Bui this cannot be done in the ordinary way. Alcohol, instead of being 
digested, penetrates through the very substance of the whole system. 
i the brain ; diffuses itself through its whole mass ; inflames 
it ; indurates it ; brings on irregularity of action in it ; renders it more 
or less incapable of its usual functions, and predisposes it to diseases of 

ry kind which are incident to it. 



Prof. Moses Stuart, D.D. 25 

" It does the same by the lower viscera. The liver is indurated by 
it, and its natural color is changed. The stomach is contracted and 
inflamed. The skin loses its fair color and healthy appearance. ' Not 
a blood-vessel however minute, not a thread of nerve in the whole 
animal machine, that escapes its influence.' Nay, it penetrates the very 
bones of the system, and the whole becomes an inflammable mass. 
This is certain from the fact that cases of spontaneous and total com- 
bustion of the bodies of drunkards have been known to take place, and 
are every now and then occurring. 

" With all this, the appetite is impaired ; the powers of digestion 
are ruined, and predisposition to almost every disease, especially to all 
those of an inflammatory nature,, is either originated or nourished and 
greatly heightened by the use of alcoholic drinks. 

"It appears, therefore, that when our subject is considered merely 
in a physiological point of view it is plain that the Author of our 
nature very fully testifies His displeasure at the use of alcoholic drinks. 
But, 

" This testimony is still further displayed in the mischievous effects 
which they produce on the health, happiness, and usefulness of the indi- 
viduals who consume them. 

"It would of course be expected by every rational man that any 
substance producing such an effect on our physical system as alcohol 
does would be injurious to health. I need not stop to prove that such 
is the effect. The intemperate man ' does not live out half his days,' 
Disease and death in every form hover around him. Ten thousand 
arrows are ready to pierce him, where his temperate neighbor is com- 
paratively invulnerable. A full career of drunkenness can never be 
long ; an interrupted one is sure to render life proportionally short. 
All this is too plain to need any comment ; for every one who reads this 
has seen the confirmation of it wherever drunkards have been presented 
to his view. 

"Xor can it ever be said, with any justice, that only the excessive 
use of alcoholic liquor leads to all this. The tendency of it is the same, 
when taken in any assignable measure, if used otherwise than as a 
medicine. It disturbs the equipoise, the balanced and adjusted and 
symmetrical action of the human system, in a greater or less degree, 
when taken in any quantity whatever. If it be not always attended 
with fatal or deleterious consequences, it is only because of the vis 
medicatrix, the power of self-restoration, which the God of nature has 
imparted to our animal system. This may in some cases resist the 
effects of alcohol, and prevail over it, just as it may over the influence 
of any other poison. But it is not the less true, because of this, that 
alcohol is a poison. It is beyond all doubt a poison. Otherwise the 
animal system would not so abhor and treat it. That a man may 
become accustomed to bear a certain quantity of this poison without 



26 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

being immediately destroyed is true • but so may he be brought to 
bear opium and arsenio, or any other poison. The wonderful tendency 
of our physical system towards a state of health, and its power to resist 
noxious substances, is matter of admiration and of gratitude to the 
great Author of our nature ; but it is no proof that alcohol has not a 
direct tendency to destroy our health. 

11 That alcohol may be used as a medicine, and sometimes in a bene- 
ficial way, there can be no rational doubt. But is not this equally true 
of arsenic, and of all the deadly poisons which can be named ? Have 
not modern pharmacy and chemistry, united to an extensive knowledge 
of physiology and pathology, learned to convert all the instruments of 
destruction into armor of safety when tempered and directed in a cer- 
tain way ? This is too well known to need that it should be insisted on 
here. And what is true of other poisons is true of alcohol ; and no 
more. It is true, indeed, that alcohol, when taken in moderate quan- 
tities, is not so deadly a poison as some others. Yet it is equally cer- 
tain that an increase of this quantity to any considerable portion, 
before a person has habituated himself to the use of it, is sure to destroy 
life. But when the destruction is not speedy, it is still certain, if the 
use of the substance in question be persevered in so as to produce daily 
intoxication. 

"We are compelled, therefore, to class alcohol among the poisons, 
although among the slower and more subtle ones. It has all the pro- 
perties of a poison." 

* * * * * 

" From these and the like considerations, we may come to the plain 
and certain conclusion that the use of intoxicating liquors is as evi- 
dently forbidden by God in His arrangement of our natures as in the 
volume of His revelation." 

Under the second question, "Are those persons who con- 
sume intoxicating liquors, or who traffic in them, to be re- 
garded as deserving of Christian animadversion and disci- 
pline ? " he says : 

"Here I ask, first, can the moderate use of them be indulged in 
without hading to an immoderate use? I have already adverted to 
this subject ; and I may say here that the answer to this question 
requires no delay. Universal experience testifies that the immoderate 
use is almost certainly and, as it were, necessarily connected with the 
habitual use of them. The quantity taken this month does not suffice 
for the next. It loses its stimulating power to a certain extent ; and 
this ran be kept up only by increasing the quantity. Such is the abso- 
lute nod oerl of nature, and it cannot be reversed. The use of 
them, then, must ever have a direct and nearly a certain connection 



Prof. Moses Stuart, D.D. 27 

with the abuse of them. This attaches itself to the very nature of the 
elements in question and the physiological constitution of our bodies." 
***** 

"It is criminal, when not called by duty, to expose one's self to 
ruin, temporal and spiritual. It is a wanton trifling with the highest 
interests of time and eternity. It is a presumption on which the God 
of heaven frowns. It is, therefore, an immorality, and one deserving 
of serious Christian reprehension. 

" The man, then, who consumes alcohol is a just subject of animad- 
version. And is not he who is a partner in the crime, he who manu- 
factures, or he who vends ardent spirits still more criminal ? The 
former makes, it may be, but one drunkard ; he ruins himself alone. 
The latter makes a multitude great in proportion to the extent of his 
traffic. The accessory in this case is as bad — nay, worse— than the 
principal." 

***** 

"I have, in a multitude of cases, heard the use of spirituous liquors 
defended by the argument which I have been examining— viz., that the 
abuse of a thing is not to be pleaded against the use of it. But I feel 
constrained to say that there never was a case in which reason and 
argument were more plainly abused than here. The abuse of a thing 
in itself good and useful and necessary does not indeed furnish any 
good argument against the use of it ; for every good thing on earth has 
been abused by some. But when the God of nature has so formed us 
that our very physical frame abhors a certain substance, and throws it 
off by violence, or is subjected by it to disease and suffering ; when the 
rational and mental powers are more or less disturbed by this sub- 
stance ; and when the use of it does, with nearly absolute certainty, 
lead to the abuse of it ; then the case is clear that all use is abuse. The 
substance is fairly to be set down and ranked among the poisons, and 
to be exhibited only when one poison is to be employed by physicians 
in order to repel another ; or, in other words, when the less deadly 
weapon is to be used in order to ward off the blow of the more deadly 
one. 

"It must, then, be the plain dictate of common sense that all use 
of such a thing when not called for by duty, and when attended with 
certain exposure to most terrible danger, is criminal, and is a just sub- 
ject of Christian animadversion. 

"But there is another light in which the subject now in question 
must be viewed before we dismiss it. I take it to be a broad, safe, and 
firmly-established ground of Christian morality that whatever duty 
does not command, and which at the same time is matter of offence to 
others — i.e., gives them occasion of stumbling — should be scrupulously 
avoided." 

***** 



28 Foot-Prints of I'emperance Pioneers. 

"I have never yet been able to believe that any man will seriously 
advocate the moderate use of spirits who is not himself particularly 
attached to the use of them, or has not some interest in the manufac- 
turing or vending of them." 

***** 

4 'The result to which I feel compelled to come is, that the use of 
intoxicating liquors in any way as a common drink or matter of luxury, 
and all traffic in them for the sake of promoting or accommodating 
this purpose, is a just subject of Christian animadversion and disci- 
pline ; for it is an offence against the plain and obvious principles of 
our holy religion, an olfence against the great Head of the church, and 
against the best interests of our country." 

Ill relation to the question, "Have the churches of Christ 
power to debar persons from their communion who are 
guilty of the offence under consideration ?" he presents an 
exhaustive reply. We can only quote a few sentences in 
conclusion : 

" I must come, then, with such considerations in view as have been 
suggested in the preceding pages, fully to the conclusion that it is a 
matter of expediency and duty for our churches not to admit members 
in future, except on the ground of total abstinence from the use of 
intoxicating liquors, and from all traffic in them." 

* * * * * 

"The time is coming when those who use intoxicating liquors or 
traffic in them will not be able to lift up their heads in a Christian 
church which has any good claim to elevation and purity of character. 
They will be as really and truly stigmatized on account of unchristian 
conduct as those who are guilty of vices that are now deemed palpably 
disgraceful. I verily believe this. Everything tends to confirm such an 
opinion. But let not any church, by imprudent or injudicious mea- 
sures, retard the approach of that day. May God in mercy speed the 
time when it shall dawn ! But may He, in the same mercy, keep His 
churches from imprudent or injurious measures, and from everything 
that will mar the peace which they ought to enjoy 1 

"And now, Christian brethren, one and all, by whatever particular 
name you may be called, let me beseech you to look forward to that 
t day of the Lord, when every one of us must give an account of 
himself to God, and inquire whether it be possible to suppose that it 
will then be matter of joy to any one that on earth he has persevered 
in the determination to offend his fellow-Christians by insisting on the 
of intoxicating liquors, or on traffic in them. It is now clear as the 
Light that these liquors neither promote health, nor yield any nourish- 
ment, nor guard against disease. It is equally clear that such use and 



George Noyes, Esq. 29 

traffic are dangerous, in a high degree, both to the temporal and eternal 
welfare of your fellow-men. If Paul would ' neither eat flesh nor drink 
wine until the world should end,' merely because it might offend even 
his weaker brethren, can you now refuse to exercise a self-denial far 
more easy and more imperiously demanded than this ? Or will you 
persevere to offend many thousands of your brethren by doing that 
against which nature revolts, and which God by the constitution of that 
nature has forbidden ? Can it be supposed that such conduct will not 
offend the great Head of the church ? It cannot. The voice of reason 
and conscience forbids us to suppose this. The great law of love for- 
bids it. This law requires us to do unto others that which we would 
that others should do to us. It requires us never to give an occasion of 
stumbling to a Christian brother by persisting in anything which duty 
does not enjoin us to do. The Saviour Himself has pronounced a fear- 
ful woe on those who give offence to any of His little ones — i.e., of His 
children or followers. Better were it for them that a mill-stone were 
hanged about their necks, and that they were cast into the depths of 
the sea, than that they should do this." 



GEORGE NOYES, ESQ. 



I 



X 1833 Mr. Noyes wrote a strong article on the duty of 
entire abstinence and the responsibility of the moderate 
drinker. He said : 



" * He that continues the practice of temperate drinking neglects to 
do what is in his power to remove a great calamity from the human 
race. He will not do his part toward the extinction of a common evil. 
He shows that he has less love for his Maker than for the indulgence of 
an unnatural appetite. For he that loveth God will love the image of 
God in the soul of his brother, and do nothing which has a tendency to 
efface it. He shows that, instead of loving his neighbor as himself, he 
loves him less than the vile cup of intoxication. He is by his practice 
and example tempting his brother to his ruin. He is encouraging a 
habit which is daily bringing destruction upon the bodies and souls of 
thousands of his fellow-creatures. ' " 

♦ 

Dr. MussEvsaid: "So long as alcohol retains a place among sick 
patients, so long will there be drunkards." 



LYMAN BEECHER, D.D 



FOREMOST among the noble men who lifted up their 
voices against intemperance stands Eev. Dr. Lyman 
Beecher. 
When settled at East Hampton, in 1808, he was awakened 
to the enormity of the evil. In later years, referring to the 
treatment of the Montauk Indians, he said : 

" There was a grog-seller in our neighborhood who drank himself 
and corrupted others. He always kept his jug under the bed, to 
drink in the night, till he was choked off by death. He would go down 
with his barrel of whiskey in a wagon to the Indians and get them tipsy 
and bring them in debt ; he would get all their corn, and bring it back 
in his wagon — in fact, he stripped them. Then, in winter, they must 
come up twenty miles, buy their own corn, and pack it home on their 
shoulders or starve. Oh! it was horrible, horrible. It burned and burn- 
ed in my mind, and I swore a deep oath in my mind that it shouldn't 
be so." 

In 1810 Dr. Beecher moved to Litchfield, Conn., and was 
powerfully stirred by reading Dr. Rush's essay, and what he 
himself saw of the effects of the drink. In 1825 he delivered 
his celebrated " Six Sermons on Intemperance," which had 
an immense circulation, and which produced a profound 
impression upon the country. We give a short extract : 

" We now come to the inquiry, By what means can the evil of intem- 
perance be stayed ? and the answer is, not by any one thing, but by 
everything which can be put in requisition to hem in the army of the 
j -or and impede his march, and turn him back and redeem the 
land. 

" [ntemperanee is a national sin, carrying destruction from the 
centre extremity of the country, and calling upon the nation to 

array itself > n jainst it. 

u It is in vain to rely alone upon self-government and voluntary absti- 
nence. This, by all means, should be encouraged and enforced, and may 
limit the evil, but can never expel it. Alike hopeless are all the efforts of 
the pulpit and the press, without something more radical, efficient, and 

30 



Lyman Beecher, D.D. 31 

permanent. If knowledge only, or argument or motive were needed, the 
task of reformation would be easy ; but argument may as well be ex- 
erted upon the wind, and motive be applied to chain down the waves. 
Thirst and the love of filthy lucre are incorrigible. Many may be saved 
by these means; but, with nothing more, many will be lost and the 
evil will go down to other ages. 

" Alike hopeless is the attempt to stop intemperance by mere civil 
coercion. There is too much capital vested in the importation, distilla- 
tion, and vending of ardent spirits, and too brisk a demand for their 
consumption in the market, to render mere legal enactments and pro- 
hibitions of sufficient influence to keep the practice of trafficking in ardent 
spirits within safe limits. As well might the ocean be poured out upon 
the Andes, and its waters be stopped from rushing violently down their 
sides. It would require an omniscient eye and an almighty arm, pun- 
ishing with speedy and certain retribution all delinquents, to stay the 
progress of intemperance in the presence of the all-pervading temptation 
of ardent spirits. 

"Magistrates will not, and cannot if they would, execute the laws 
against the unlawful vending and drinking of ardent spirits, amid a 
population who hold the right of suffrage and are in favor of free in- 
dulgence. The effort, before the public sentiment was prepared for it, 
would hurl them quick from their elevation, and exalt others who would 
be no terror to evil-doers. Our fathers could enforce morality by law ; 
but the times are changed, and unless we can regulate public sentiment, 
and secure morality in some other way, we are undone. 

" Voluntary associations to support the magistrate in the execution of 
the law are useful, but after all are ineffectual ; for, though in a single 
town or State they may effect a temporary reformation, it requires an 
effort to make them universal, and to keep up their energy, which never 
has been and never will be made. 

"Besides, the reformation of a town, or even of a State, is but 
emptying of its waters the bed of a river, to be instantly replaced by the 
waters from above : or, like the creation of a vacuum in the atmosphere 
which is instantly filled by the pressure of the circumjacent air. 

" The remedy, whatever it may be, must be universal — operating 
permanently at all times and in all places. Short of this, everything 
which can be done will be but the application of temporary expedients. 

u There is somewhere a mighty energy of evil at work in the pro- 
duction of intemperance ; and until we can discover and destroy this 
vital power of mischief we shall labor in vain. 

"Intemperance in our land is not accidental; it is rolling in upon us 
by the violation of some great laws of human nature. In our views, and 
in our practice as a nation, there is something fundamentally wrong; 
and the remedy, like the evil, must be found in the correct application 
of general principles. It must be a universal and national remedy. 



3-2 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

" What, then, is this universal, natural, and national remedy for in- 
temperani 

" It is the banishment of ardent spirits from the list of lawful articles 
of oommerce by a correct and efficient public sentiment ; such as has 
turned slavery out of half of our land, and will yet expel it from the 
world. 

" Drunkenness is a sin which excludes from heaven. The commerce 
in ardent spirits, therefore, productive only of evil in time, fits for de- 
struction and turns into hell multitudes which no man can number. 

"lam aware that in the din of business and the eager thirst for 
gain the consequences of our conduct upon our views, and the future 
destiny of our fellow-men, are not apt to be realized or to modify our 
course. 

" But has not God connected with all lawful avocations the welfare 
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come ? And can we law- 
fully amass property by a course of trade which fills the land with beg- 
gars, and widows, and orphans, and crimes, which peoples the graveyard 
with premature mortality and the world of woe with the victims of de- 
spair ? Could all the forms of evil produced in the land by intempe- 
rance come upon us in one horrid array, it would appall the nation, and 
put an end to the traffic in ardent spirits. If in every dwelling built by 
blood, the stone from the wall should utter all the cries which the 
bloody traffic extorts, and the beam out of the timber should echo them 
back, who would build such a house, and who would dwell in it? What 
if in every part of the dwelling, from the cellar upward, through all the 
halls and chambers, babblings, and contentions, and voices, and groans, 
and shrieks, and wailings were heard day and night ! What if the cold 
blood oozed out, and stood in drops upon the walls; and, by preterna- 
tural art, all the ghastly skulls and bones of the victims destroyed by 
intemperance should stand upon the walls in horrid sculpture, within 
and without the building ! Who would rear such a building ? What 
if at eventide and at midnight the airy forms of men destroyed by in- 
temperance were dimly seen haunting the distilleries and stores where 
they received their bane, or following the track of the ship engaged in 
the commerce — walking upon the waves — flitting athwart the deck — 
sitting upon the rigging— and sending up, from the hold within and 
from the waves without, groans and loud laments and wailings ! Who 
would attend such stores ? Who would labor in such distilleries? Who 
would navigate such ships ? 

"Oh! were the sky over our heads one great whispering-gallery, 
bringing down about us all the lamentation and woe which intempe- 
rance creates, and the firm earth one sonorous medium of sound, bring- 
ing up around us from beneath the wailings of the damned, whom the 
commerce in ardent spirits had sent thither; these tremendous realities, 
assailing our senses, would invigorate our conscience and give decision 



Presidential Declaration. 33 

to our purpose of reformation. But these evils are as real as if the 
stone did cry out of the wall, and the beam answered it — as real as if, 
day and night, wailings were heard in every part of the dwelling, and 
blood and skeletons were seen upon every wall — as real as if the ghostly 
forms of departed victims flitted about the ship as she passed over the 
billows, and showed themselves nightly about stores and distilleries, 
and with unearthly voices screamed in our ears their loud lament. 
They are as real as if the sky over our heads collected and brought 
down about us all the notes of sorrow in the land, and the firm earth 
should open a passage for the wailings of despair to come up from 
beneath." 



PRESIDENTIAL DECLARATION. 



HOX. E. C. DELAY AX secured the signatures of a num- 
ber of the Presidents of the United States to a declara- 
tion against ardent spirits as a drink. In 1862 Mr. 
Delavan wrote as follows : 

"The certificate of twelve Presidents I deem interesting as well as 
instructive. When I obtained the signatures of the^zrs^ three, about 
thirty years since, by a personal visit to eac4i, the movement against 
alcohol as a beverage was confined to distilled spirit ; then the impres- 
sion was general that fermented drinks were safe in moderation; but 
science has since settled the question that alcohol is exactly the same 
poison in what are termed fermented drinks as in distilled; indeed, that 
in both it is formed by fermentation, and that there would be no im- 
propriety in calling all kinds of intoxicating drinks a relent spirits. Pure 
brandy is distilled from wine, and should be called distilled wine." / 

The following is the declaration with the signatures : 

"Being satisfied from observation and experience, as well as from 
medical testimony, that Ardent Spirit, as a drink, is not. only needless, 
but hurtful, and that the entire disuse of it would tend to promote the 
health, the virtue, and the happiness of the community, we hereby 
express our conviction that should the citizens of the United States, 
and especially the young men, discontinue entirely the use of it, they 
id not only promote their own personal benefit, but the good of our 
country and the world. 

"James Madison, John Tyler, 

" Andrew Jackson, Z. Taylor, 

"John Qutncy Adams, Millard Fillmore, 

" M. Van Ruben, James K. Polk, 

" Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, 

u Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson." 



JUSTIN EDWARDS, D.D. 



REV. DR. EDWARDS was for many years the cor- 
responding secretary of the American Temperance 
Society, which was organized in 1826. He was one 
of the most indefatigable workers and vigorous writers of 
his time. His reports were replete with facts and statistics 
and valuable information, making a volume of permanent 
documents of rare value for the historian. In 1811, when 
pastor of the Congregational Church at Andover, Mass., he 
delivered a sermon, in which he said : 

" 'I speak as unto wise men.' What shall be done? Shall this 
enemy be continued among us, or shall we declare a war of extermina- 
tion and root it out ? But one says: * It is a very useful thing. It will 
do no hurt if men do not take too much; they must be on their guard/ 
No; * Be on your guard' has been the motto for thirty years, and shall 
we go on and perpetuate its evils on this generation, and fasten them on 
the necks of posterity? 

" It is not drunkards nor intemperate men who control this busi- 
ness ; it is temperate men, useful men, honorable men. Let them for- 
bear to use it, and show that it is not necessary, and the evil will die; 
for they shut the door through which all intemperate men and all drunk- 
ards have entered. Those men were once where temperate men now are, 
in the temperate use of strong drink; and temperate men, if they con- 
tinue this course, will, many of them, be where the intemperate men 
now are. 

k ' We are now reduced to one point : shall temperate men continue 
imperate use of strong drink, and thus keep open the door to in- 
temperance, idleness, dissipation, drunkenness, poverty, wretchedness, 
and death; or shall they forbear, and thus shut the door against these 
evila tor ever? 

" ' I speak as unto wise men. 1 " 

In 1826 he wrote the tract entitled " The Well- Conducted 
Farm, " exhibiting the result of an experiment made by an 
original member of the committee of the American Tempe- 
rance Society, S. V. S. Wilder, Esq., of Bolton, which had an 
immense circulation. The following is a portion of the tract: 



Jcstix Ed wards, D.D. 35 

"Mr. B , a respectable farmer in Massachusetts, came, a number 

of years ago, into the possession of a farm of about six hundred acres. 
On this farm he employed eight or ten men. These men were in the 
habit, and had been for years, of taking each a portion of ardent spirit, 
when they labored, every day. They had grown up in the practice of 
taking it, and the idea was fixed in their minds that they could not do 
without. It was the common opinion in the place that, for laboring 

men who had to work hard, some ardent spirit was necessary. Mr. B 

for a time followed the common practice, and furnished his men with a 
portion of spirit daily. But, after much attentive observation and ma- 
ture reflection, he became deeply impressed with the conviction that the 
practice was not only useless, but hurtful. He became convinced that 
it tends to lead men to intemperance, to undermine their constitutions, 
and to sow the seeds of death, temporal and eternal ; and he felt that 
he could not be justified in continuing to cultivate his farm by means of 
a practice which was ruining the bodies and souls of his fellow-men. 
He therefore called his men together, and told them in a kind and faith- 
ful manner what were his convictions. He told them that he was per- 
■ satisfied that the practice of taking ardent spirits was not only 
needless, but hurtful ; that it tended to weaken and destroy both the 
body and mind; and that he could not, consistently with his duty, be 
instrumental in continuing a practice which he had no doubt tended to 
destroy them both for this world and the world to come. He therefore 
from that time should furnish them with no ardent spirits. 

" One of them said that he could not work without it, and if he did 
not furnish them with it he would not stay with him. ' Very well,' said 

Mr. B ; 'hand me your bill and be off.' The man replied that he 

presumed all the others would leave him. ' Very well,' said Mr. B ; 

'tell them, any of them who choose to leave — all of them, if they choose 
to go — to hand in their bills, and they shall have their money to-night. 
If they stay, however, they shall have nourishing food and drink at 
any time, and in any abundance which they wish ; and at the close of 
the year each one shall have twelve dollars — that is, one dollar a month 
in addition to his wages. But I shall furnish no spirits of any kind, 
neither shall I have it taken by men in my employment. I had rather 
my farm would grow up to weeds than be cultivated by means of so per- 
nicious a practice as that of taking ardent spirits.' However, none of 
the men left except that one ; and when he saw that all the others con- 
cluded to stay he came back and said that, as the others had concluded 
to stay and do without rum, he believed that he could, and he should 

be glad to stay too, if Mr. B had no objection. But he told him 

No, he did not wish him to stay ; he would make of him an example, 
and he must go. So he departed. The rest went to work, and he fur- 
nished them with no spirits from that time through the season ; yet his 
work, he said, was done ' with less trouble, in a better manner, and in 



30 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

ir season than ever before. 1 Some of his men, howeve?, he fid, 
when they went abroad, did take ardent spirits. They sometimeiro- 

oured it -it the tavern or a store, and in some instances took it se<tly 
while on his farm. The evil, therefore, although greatly lessenedfas 
not entirely done away. 

•• When he came to hire men again he let it be known that hlid 
not wish to hire any man who was not willing to abstain entirely a at 
all times from the use of ardent spirits. His neighbors told him at 
aid not hire men on those conditions; that men could nobe 
found who would do without rum, especially in haying and harvests. 
Well, he said; then he would not hire them at all. His farm shed 
grow up to weeds. As to cultivating it by the help of rum, he wed 
not. By allowing men in his employment, and for whose conducte 
was in a measure responsible, to take ardent spirits, he should be ld- 
ing his influence to continue a practice, or he should at least be conv- 
ing at a practice, which was destroying more lives, making mordo- 
thers widows and children orphans than famine, pestilence, and swd; 
a practice which was destroying by thousands and tens of thousands ot 
only the bodies, but the souls of men, rendering them, and their cl* 
dren after them, wretched for this world and the world to come. * N* 1 
said he, * I will clear my hands of this enormous guilt. I will not j 
practice encourage, or by silence, or having men in my employment w> 
take ardent spirits connive at this deadly evil.' However, he found 1 
difficulty in hiring men, and of the best kind. And when his neighbor 
saw T that by giving one dollar a month more than others he could hii 
as many men as he pleased, they gave up that objection. But they sai 
it was bad policy, for the men would not do so much work, and ht, 
would in the end be a loser. But he told them that, although they 
might not at first do quite so much, he presumed that they would in 
the end do more. But if they should not, only let them do, said he, 
what they easily can, and I shall be satisfied. My Maker does not re- 
quire of me any more than I can do without rum — for he used no ardent 
spirits himself — and I shall require no more of them. His men went 
to work, and his business prospered exceedingly. His men were remark- 
ably uniform in their temper and deportment, still and peaceable. 

11 lie found them every day alike, and he could always safely trust 
them. What lie expected to have done he found was done in good sea- 
son and in the best manner. His men never made so few mistakes, had 
putes among themselves; they never injured and destroyed so 
found so little fault with their manner of living, or were, 
on the whole, bo pleasant to one another and to their employer. The 
men appeared more than ever before like brethren oi the same family, 
satisfied with their business, contented and happy. 

'•At lii.' close of the year one of them came to Mr. B , and, with 

in his eyes, said: ' Sir, I thought that you were very hard in keep- 



Justin Edwards, D.D. 37 

s 

ing us from drinking rum. I had always been accustomed to it, and I 
thought that I could not do without it. And for the first three months,' 
said he, ' it was hard — very hard. I had such a caving in here/ putting 
his hands up to his side — ' I had such a desperate caving in here that I 
thought I should die. But as you gave us good wages and good pay, 
and the rest resolved to stand it without rum, I thought I would. 

" * And now/ said he, ' I am well and happy. I work with ease, sleep 
sweetly, and when I get up in the morning, instead of having, as I use to, 
my mouth and throat ; — to use his own words — ' so full of cobwebs as to 
be spitting cotton-wool all the time, my mouth and throat are clear as a 
whistle. I feel active, have a good appetite, and can eat anything. 

" i Formerly, when I worked hard, I was at night tired, and could 
not sleep. When I got up in the morning I was so sore and stiff, so 
filled up in my throat, and my appetite was so gone that I could do 
nothing till I had taken a glass of rum and molasses. I then stood it 
till breakfast. But my breakfast did not relish, and what I took did 
not seem to nourish me. Soon after I got to work I was so hollow and 
so tired that I felt desperate ugly till eleven o'clock. Then I took a new 
vamper. And by the strength of that I got on till dinner. Then I 
must have a little more to give me an appetite. At three o'clock in the 
afternoon I must have recourse ' — these were his words—' to the hair 
of the same dog to keep up my sinking spirits. And thus I got along 
till night. Then I must have a little to sharpen appetite for supper. 
And after supper I could not sleep till I had taken another nightcap. 

" 'Thus I continued,' said Jie, 'year after year, undermining a con- 
stitution which was naturally very robust, and growing worse and 
worse, until 1 came under your wise and excellent regulations. And 
now,' said he, ' I am cured. I am cured. I can now do more labor 
than when I took spirits, without half the fatigue, and take nothing 
stronger than pure, cold water. If a man would give me the same wages 
that you do, and a dollar a day in addition, to return to the practice of 
drinking rum, I would laugh at him.' All this was the free, spon- 
taneous effusion of his own mind, in view of the great change wrought 
in his feelings by leaving off entirely the use of ardent spirits. 

" Another of the workmen came to Mr. B and said that he had 

found it very hard to do without rum at first ; but he could now freely 
say that he never enjoyed so good health, or felt so well, as he did then. 
He said that in cold weather in the winter, and after chopping all day 
in the woods, especially if exposed to rains, or if his feet were wet, he 
had for a long time been accustomed to a very bad rheumatism, and at 
night to a dreadful headache. He took spirits temperately, and he sup- 
posed it was necessary to guard him against these evils. Still he suf- 
fered them; and he found nothing that would prevent them. But since 
he had left off entirely the use of spirits he had had no rheumatism, and 
been entirely free from the headache. 



38 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

"Another of the workmen said he thought at first that he could do 
very well without spirits three-quarters of the year; but that in haying 
and harvesting he should want a little. But he had found that a dish 
of bread and milk, or some other nourishing food, at eleven o'clock 
answered his purpose at all times just as well as grog, and he thought a 
little better. And as he was now entirely free from the habit of taking 
spirits he would not on any accouut be placed in a situation where he 
should be tempted to renew it. 

11 Such were the feelings of men who had always been accustomed to 
the practice of taking spirits till they came into Mr. B 's employ- 
ment, and who afterwards had not taken a drop. They had tried both 
sides, and had found, by experience, that the practice of taking ardent 
spirits is utterly useless; nay, that it is positively hurtful, It was 
their united testimony that they enjoyed better health, were more 
happy, could do more work, and with less fatigue, than when they took 
spirits. 

" They said, to be sure, that they found it hard to do without it at 
first. And so would a man who had been in the habit of taking lauda- 
num, or any poison that was not fatal, but was stimulating and pleasant 
to the taste, however destructive it might be in the end to his constitu- 
tion. But after they had freed themselves from the habit of taking 
spirits they found no inconvenience, but were in all respects better 
than they were before. And they acknowledged that they were ex- 
ceedingly indebted to him, who, by his wise regulations, had been the 
means of improving their condition. The following were some of the 
advantages to them : 

"1. They had a better appetite, partook of their food with a keener 
relish, and it was more nourishing to them than before. 

"2. They possessed much greater vigor and activity both of body 
and mind. 

1 ' 3. They performed the same labor with much greater ease, and 
were in a great measure free from that lassitude and fatigue to which 
they were before accustomed. 

" 4. They had greater wages, and they laid up a much greater portion 
of what they had. Before, numbers used to spend a great portion of 
their wages in scenes of amusement and dissipation. Now, they had no 
inclination to frequent such scenes. The consequence is, they lay up 
more money. They are also more serious in their deportment, spend 
more of their leisure time in useful reading, much oftener peruse the 
Scriptures, and attend public worship; and they are more attentive to 
all the means of grace. In a word, they are more likely to become use- 
ful and happy in this life, and to be prepared for lasting blessedness in 
the life to corn'-. 

"5, Their example will be more likely to be useful to those around 
them; and that for both worlds. 



Justin Edwards, D.D. 39 

"The following are some of the advantages to their employer: 

61 1. The men, he says, in the course of the year do more work, in a 
better manner, and at a much less expense of tools. 

11 2. He can now with much greater ease have a place for everything, 
and everything in its place. 

"3. When a stone has fallen from the wall it is now laid up, as the 
men are passing by, without his mentioning it. The gates are locked, 
and the bars put up ; so that the cattle do not, as before, get in and 
destroy the crops. 

" 4. His summer work is done in such season that earth, loam, etc., is 
carted into the yard in the fall, instead of being carted in in .the spring 
as before. The consequence is, when carried out it is richer and renders 
the farm more productive. 

" 5. His barns in winter are kept clean and less fodder is wasted. 
The cattle and horses are daily curried and appear in better order. 

"6. When his men go into the forests, instead, as before, of cutting 
down the nearest, thriftiest, and largest trees, they cut those that are 
decayed, crooked, and not likely to grow any better, pick up those that"' 
are blown down, and thus leave the forests in a better state. 

" 7. The men are more uniform, still, and peaceable; are less trouble 
in the house, and more contented with their manner of living. 

"8. At morning and evening prayer they are more ready than before 
to attend, and in season ; appearing to esteem it not only a duty but a 
privilege and a pleasure to be present, and unite with the family in the 
daily worship of God. 

" 9. On the Sabbath, instead of wishing, as before, to stay at home, 
or to spend the day in roving about the fields, rivers, and forests, they 
choose statedly and punctually to attend public worship. In a word, 
their whole deportment, both at home and abroad, is improved, and to 
a greater extent than any, without witnessing it, can well imagine. 

"All these and many more advantages resulted from their abstain- 
ing entirely, and at all times, from the use of ardent spirits." 



Hon; Wm. Cratch, Chief Judge of the District of Co- 
lumbia, in an address in 1831 estimated the loss annually 
in the United States from the use of ardent spirits to be 
$94,425,000. He said : 

"We may safely say that the quantity of ardent spirits consumed 
in the United States ten years ago was at least equal to six gallons for 
each person, and as the population was at that time twelve millions 
the quantity consumed in the United States was seventy-two million 
gallons." 



R. D. MUSSEY, M.D. 



PROP. REUBEN D. MUSSEY, M.D., of the Medical 
Institute of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, de- 
livered an able address on "ardent spirits" before the 
Medical Society of the College June 5, 1827. Dr. Mussey was 
then president of the society, and the address made a pro- 
found impression. We give the conclusion of his powerful 
ament : 

"If ardent spirit be necessary to health and activity, how did the 
world get along without it for forty-eight hundred years ? How could 
the Roman soldiery withstand the frightful onsets of Hannibal, with 
nothing to drink stronger than vinegar and water ? Take a soldier of 
the present day, clothe him with heavy Roman armor, and give him the 
pilum and short sword — weapons which, it has been said, ' conquered 
the world' — and it will soon appear what blessings we have derived 
from alcohol. The modern Achilles cripples under his load, unable to 

From the ground the instrument with which he is to meet his foe. 
" 'But alcohol is certainly useful as a medicine, and it may be re- 
sorted to as an antidote to infectious diseases.' If it be a good medi- 
cine, let it be used only as a medicine. What has a healthy man to do 
with medicine ? Let it be kept only on the shelves of the apothecary. 
But how does it appear that spirit affords security under exposure to 
contagion ? The history of certain epidemics will show that they 
v a larger proportion of tipplers than of those who are temperate. 
Two physicians of my acquaintance were called to practise in the same 

<iic scarlet fever. One drank spirit freely, the other not at all; 
they were equally exposed to the contagion, and both took the disease. 
The drinker died, the other recovered. If you are exposed to the infec- 

airof sick-rooms, take plain, nourishing food at regular intervals 
and nnstimnlating drinks. 

But if aa a preventive, is not alcohol important in the 

lit of disease ? ' I admit that it is sometimes convenient, but I 

deny that : utial to the practice of physic or surgery. Do we 

to rekindle the taper of life as it glimmers in a fainting-fit, we 

ammonia and the volatile oils, and, what is better than everything 
else, cold water, to be administered by affusion. Is it required to pro- 
of long-standing debility, the tonic roots, 
and barks, and impart their invigorating properties to water or 

40 



H. D. Mussey, M.D. 41 

acid. Are we called upon to relieve pain, opium is altogether superior 
to alcohol. Do we need a solvent for opium, we have it in the acetous 
acid. The black drop is one of the best solutions of opium ever in- 
vented. 

" 'But what is to be done with the medicinal resins and aromatic 
oils — must not they be dissolved in alcohol ? ' The medicinal resins do 
not constitute a very important class of remedies, but they may be given 
in fine powder, rubbed with some inert friable substance, or dissolved in 
an essential oil, or made into an emulsion. The ordinary mode of 
using them does not carry them into the stomach in the state of solution, 
as they are instantly precipitated in a flocculent form on being thrown 
into water. As for the aromatic oils, they may be given in the form of 
liquid soap, or emulsion rubbed with alkali, or sugar and water, and in 
this way they exert their specific effects. 

" Is the physician required to prescribe a restorative ; if quinine, and 
bark, and bitters, and metallic tonics will not do, shall he prescribe 
alcohol ? This is never certain and always unsafe, inasmuch as there is 
imminent danger of a permanent relish being acquired for it ; nor does 
it compare in its restorative powers, in cases where the complaint was 
not produced or modified by the previous use of it, with the pure fer- 
mented and well-preserved juices of the grape and the apple. The fac- 
titious wines extensively vended in our country are poor restoratives ; 
they contain a large proportion of alcohol. 

"I maintain then that, taking into view the danger of making tip- 
plers by giving ardent spirit to the sick, and considering that all its 
medicinal virtues are found in other articles, mankind would not on the 
whole be losers if it should be banished not only from the houses of 
every class of the community, but also from the shops of the apothecary. 

"There can be little doubt of the correctness of the prevailing 
opinion that the consumption of ardent spirit has been for a few years 
past an alarmingly increasing evil in our .country. 

"By the marshal's returns in 1810, it appeared that no less than 
33,365,529 gallons of spirit were distilled and imported for a single 
year's consumption in the United States ; and there is little doubt that 
this estimate is far short of the truth, as there is, probably, every year, 
a considerable quantity smuggled into the country, of which, of course, 
no account is given. If from that time the consumption of ardent 
spirit has only kept pace with the population, it will amount to fifty-six 
millions of gallons ; but from the increase in the consumption, says a 
distinguished gentleman of our State, in an elaborate calculation, from 
which the following results are taken, ' we may safely set it down at 
sixty millions. This will give to every individual, man, woman, and 
child, including bond and free, five gallons each. Deducting the slaves 
and children under ten years of age, it will give to the rest not less than 
eight gallons each.' Is this result impossible — must there be an error in 



4*2 Foot-Pbints of Temperance Pioneers. 

the calculation ? The common seamen of our navy are allowed a daily 
ration of half a pint of spirit each. This is about twenty-three gallons 

u\ and when it is considered that hundreds of thousands of our 
citizens drink twice, thrice, or even four times this quantity, the fore- 
going result will not appear improbable. 

" ' Sixty millions of gallons, taking into the estimate the quantity of 
home-distilled spirits disguised and sold for foreign liquors, the free 
dilution of home and imported liquors before they reach the consumer, 
and the large proportion retailed in small quantities at a price greatly 
in ad vaiue of the primary cost, may be fairly reckoned at about one 
dollar the gallon, but, to be within bounds, place it at fifty million dol- 
lars. If to the actual cost of ardent spirits we add the loss of time, the 
waste of property, the various expenses of sickness and law-suits occa- 
sioned by their use, and the amount expended in the support of paupers 
reduced to indigence by intemperance, to what an enormous sum will 
the whole amount ? One hundred millions of dollars is probably far 
short of the truth.' Let half this sum be annually levied upon the 
people in the form of a direct tax, and insurrection and revolt would 
appear in every part of our country. 

"From calculations made by the gentleman before alluded to, in 
which I have great confidence, but which are too long to be admitted 
here, it appears in the highest degree probable that from twenty thou- 
sand to thirty thousand persons in the United States are annually 
brought to a premature death through the influence of ardent spirit. 
Place the number at twenty-five thousand.* 

"One hundred millions of dollars divided among the different 
States according to their population would give to New Hampshire 
about two million five hundred thousand dollars. Apply this sum to 
the support of government, of the clergy, and of schools ; improve the 
means of education by the establishment of any reasonable number of 
high-schools, and the most extensive endowment of the college ; make 
a hundred new public roads ; cut canals and build railways in every 

Pol direction ; smooth down the rugged features of the State by 
giving the most liberal encouragements to agriculture ; build up manu- 
facturing establishments ; cherish the useful and the fine arts by large 
premiums and salaries ; endow a hospital in each county, and distribute 
unheard-of sums among the numerous and charitable objects of the 
day ; send a hundred missionaries to India, and as many to our western 
wilderness; and in ten years our treasury would groan under the bur- 
den of unappropriated mon 

"Twenty-five thousand lives in our country in one year! This 
number multiplied by the time that has elapsed since the last peace. 
witli Great Britain will give three -hundred thousand, a larger number 

* Mbn roccnt estimates by other gentlemen, from larger data, fix the number at 
thirty thousand. 



R. D. Mussey, M.D. 43 

than met, in 1812, on the bloody plains spread out before the ancient 
city of the czars. Apply this calculation to the population of Europe, 
and you have three hundred and seventy-five thousand annually, or 
four millions one hundred and twenty-five thousand in eleven years, the 
time since the peace in 1816 — a number nearly equal to that swallowed 
up by that vortex of human life, the French Revolution, and its conse- 
quent wars. 

"How can anything be done effectually to check this mighty evil ? 
I give the same answer to this question which has repeatedly been given 
within the last few months : change public opinion, make it unpopular, 
unfashionable to drink spirit. What is the use of applying to govern- 
ment for a tax upon ardent spirit so large as to place it beyond the 
reach of the lower classes in the community ? Legislative enactments 
which far outrun public opinion are worth nothing. Fashion and cus- 
tom hold men with a stronger arm than legislative prescription. But 
how change public opinion ; is it not already an overwhelming torrent 
rolling onward with resistless and increasing power ? Man can accom- 
plish wonders both in the physical and moral world ; he dares even 
meditate a canal across the isthmus of Darien, expecting to lower the 
waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and perhaps to stop the Gulf Stream ; 
and who that recollects the mighty moral achievements accomplished in 
the time of the Reformation by the efforts of a single man shall despond 
at the vastness of the change now contera plated. 

"Let all good men, all well-wishers to social life and family quiet; 
to health, industry, and the arts ; to religion, morals and good govern- 
ment, unite their efforts ; and by all possible means, but chiefly by 
their example, in rigidly abstaining from ardent spirit, discourage and 
discountenance its use, among all within the sphere of their influence. 

" ' I know,' says some worthy man, ' that the evil of spirit-drinking 
is a great one, and I heartily wish we were rid of it ; but I have been in 
the habit of taking it occasionally for some years, and I find it at times 
particularly comfortable to me ; and as I am in no danger of becoming 
intemperate, must I give it up only for the benefit of others V You 
take it frequently and are fond of it— are you then in no danger ? 
Unconsciousness of danger is no proof of security. There may be some 
reason for your leaving it off on your own account, but if not, have you 
not so much regard for your family and the community as to submit to 
a slight temporary inconvenience on their account ? Why talk one 
way and act the other ? Your influence is on the side of conduct, not 
merely of words. Wliat would be said of the physician who should 
refuse to submit to the processes of cleansing necessary to rid his clothes 
of the infection of smallpox because it would cost him a little time or 
trouble, or other inconvenience, while by thus disregarding the regula- 
tions instituted for the preservation of the public health he would 
expose his family and his neighbors to the pestilence ? And whose sons 



■U Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

are more liable to become drinkers of ardent spirit than the sons of him 
who sets them the example? 

" Hut the glorious work of reform has been commenced, and is now 
in rapid progress. Within the Last half year societies for the promo- 
tion ot this object have sprung into existence, like flowers upon the 
bosom of spring after a long and cold winter; may an abundance of 
fruit follow these vigorous forth-puttings of moral effort! 

"1 repeat it, let all virtuous men unite to expel the common enemy, 
lie ought not to be allowed a place in Christian society. He is a 
foreigner, a Mohammedan ; he was born in the land of robbers, and he 
has established the genuineness of his origin by the millions he has 
deprived of property, of morals, and of life. He has come to us in the 
robe of friendship, has assured us of his best regards, has proffered his 
aid and solace in sickness, pain, and poverty. Such a friend who 
could reject ? He has been received into general favor, and admitted to 
Christian confidence and companionship ; and what reward has he 
taken for his kind offices ? He has stolen away character, health, pro- 
perty, the rich blessings and endearments of society and domestic inter- 
course, the moral sense, life, and the hope of heaven. 

" Gird up, then, to the combat. Always meet him as an enemy ; 
never again admit him to your bosoms ; give him no quarter ; expel 
him from your houses ; drive him from the land. Always treat him as 
a murderer ; he has slain your brothers, he lurks for the life-blood of 
your children, he whets his sabre for you. 

" Farmer, mechanic, professional man, orator, hast thou sought from 
ardent spirit strength to labor, or ingenuity or promptness in thy call- 
ing, or eloquence in the hall of legislation or justice ? it will palsy thine 
arm, cause thy right hand to forget its cunning, and thy tongue to 
cleave to thy mouth. # 

" Christian, what hast thou to expect from strong drink ? Art thou 
weary and dost thou linger on thine upward journey, and will ardent 
spirit bring thee sooner or safer to thine home ? 

" Dost thou wait in the sanctuary ? hast thou been separated to stand 
before the congregation ? and when thy graces languish, when thy de- 
vot ion burns feebly and faintly, dost thou rekindle it with alcohol ? 
Ah ! come not near ; bring no more this strange fire to the altar, lest, 
from its secret and holy dwelling, a flame break forth upon thee, and 
thou be consumed, and the people with thee." 



TnE "Rev. Dr. Beecher, President of Lane Seminary, Ohio, said:. 
u 1 challenge any man who understands the nature of ardent spirit, 
and yet, for the sake of gain, eontinues to be engaged in the traffic, 
low that he is not involved in the guilt of murder.' , 



L. M. SARGENT, ESQ. 



ANOTHER of the early pioneers contemporary with Moses 
Stuart, Lyman Beecher," Dr. Edwards, Dr. Cheever, 
and others of the early fathers was Mr. Sargent. 
" Sargent's Temperance Tales " were household words, re- 
printed in other lands, and received a world-wide circula- 
tion. It was the first effort at story-writing in behalf of 
the temperance reform. They were issued in 1830-1. We 
reprint the first and best of these early stories in full: 

MY MOTHER'S GOLD KI^G. 

I have one of the kindest husbands ; he is a carpenter by trade, and 
our flock of little children has one of the kindest fathers in the county. 

I was thought the luckiest girl in the parish when George T made 

me his wife. I thought so myself. Our wedding-day — and it was a 
happy one — was but an indifferent sample of those days of rational hap- 
piness and uninterrupted harmony which we were permitted to enjoy 
together for the space of six years. And although, for the last three 
years of our lives, we have been as happy as we were at the beginning, 
it makes my heart sick to think of those long, dark days and sad nights 
that came between ; for two years of our union were years of misery. 

I well recollect the first glass of ardent spirit that my husband ever 
drank. He had been at the grocery to purchase a little tea and sugar 
for the family. There were three cents coming to him in change; and, 
unluckily, the deacon, who keeps the shop, had nothing but silver in the 
till, and, as it was a sharp, frosty morning, he persuaded my good man 
to take his money's worth of rum, for it was just the price of a glass. 
He came home in wonderful spirits, told me he meant to have me and 
the children better dressed, and, as neighbor Barton talked of selling his 
horse and chaise, he thought of buying them both. And when I said to 
him, " George, we are dressed as well as we can afford, and I hope you 
will not think of a horse and chaise till we have paid off the squire's 
mortgage," he gave me a harsh look and a bitter word. I never shall 
forget that day, for they were the first he ever gave me in his life. 
When he saw me shedding tears, and holding my apron to my face, he 
said he was sorry, and came to kiss me, and I discovered that he had 
been drinking, and it grieved me to the heart. 

45 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

In i short time after, while I was washing up the breakfast things, I 

hoard our little Robert, wh<> waa only five years old, crying bitterly; and 

learn the cause, I met him running towards me with his face 

ird with blood. He said his father had taken him on his knee, and 

8 playing with him, but had given him a blow in the face, only be- 

96 he had said, when he kissed him, "Dear papa, you smell like old 

to, the drunken fiddler." My husband was very cross to us all through 
the whole of that day; but the next morning, though he said little, he 

! evidently ashamed and humbled; he went about his work very in- 
dustriously, and was particularly kind to little Robert. I prayed con- 

tttly for my good man, that God would be pleased to guide his heart 

Jit ; and, more than a week having gone by without any similar 

occurrence, 1 flattered myself that lie would never do so again. But, in 

a very little time, either the deacon was short of change, as before, or 

some tempting occasion presented itself which my husband could not 

. and he returned home once more under the influence of liquor. 

I never shall forget the expression of his countenance when he came 

in that night. We had waited supper a full hour for his return; the 

landing at the fire, the bannocks were untouched upon the 

hearth, and the smaller children were beginning to murmur for their 

supper. There was an indescribable expression of defiance on his coun- 

anoe, as though he were conscious of having done wrong, and resolved 
to brave it out. We sat down silently to supper, and he scarcely raised 
his eyes upon any of us during this unhappy repast. He soon went to 

. and fell asleep; and, after I had laid our little ones to rest, I knelt 
at the foot of the bed on which my poor misguided husband was sleep- 
ing and poured out my very soul to God, while my eyes were scalded 
with the bitterest tears 1 had ever shed. For I then foresaw that, un- 
less some remedy could be employed, my best earthly friend, the father 
of my little children, would become a drunkard. 

The next morning, after breakfast, I ventured to speak with him 

n the sabjecl in a mild way; and though I could not restrain my 

tears, neither my words nor my weeping appeared to have any effect, and 

becoming hardened and careless of us all. How many 

winter nights have 1 waited, weeping alone, at my once happy fireside, 

_- for the lifting latch, and wishing, yet dreading, to hear his 

had continued, or rather grown worse, for 
months,! put on my bonnet one morning, after my hus- 
band had gone to his work, and went to the d< -aeon's store; and, finding 
him aloi 1 my husband's ease, and begged him earnestly to sell 

him no ui'. re. He told me it would do QO good, for, if he did not, sell 

1 it ; and he doubted if my husband took 
e than Was good for him. He quoted Scripture to show that it was 

and Submit herself to her husband, and 



L. M. Sargent, Esq. 47 

not meddle with things which did not belong to her province. At this 
time two or three customers called for rum, and the deacon civilly 
advised me to go home and look after my children. 

I went out with a heavy heart. It seemed as if the tide of evil was 
setting against me. As I was passing Farmer Johnson's, on my way 
home, they called me in. I sat down and rested myself for a few 
minutes in their neat cottage. Farmer Johnson was just returning 
from the field ; and when I saw the little ones running to meet him at 
the stile, and the kind looks that passed between the good man and his 
wife ; and when I remembered that we were married on the very same 
day, and compared my own fortune with theirs, my poor heart burst 
forth in a flood of tears. They all knew what I was weeping for, and 
Farmer Johnson, in a kind manner, bade me cheer up, and put my trust 
in God's mercy, and remember that it was often darkest just before day- 
light. 

The farmer and his wife were members of the temperance society, 
and had signed the pledge ; and I had often heard him say that he be- 
lieved it had saved him from destruction. He had, before his marriage, 
and for a year after, been in the habit of taking a little spirit every day. 
He was an industrious, thriving man; but shortly after his marriage he 
became bound for a neighbor, who ran off, and he was obliged to pay the 
debt. I have heard him declare that when the sheriff took away all his 
property, and stripped his little cottage, and scarcely left him those trifles 
which are secured to the poor man by law ; and when he considered how 
ill his poor wife was at the time in consequence of the loss of their 
child, that died only a month before, he was restrained from resorting 
to the bottle in his moments of despair by nothing but a recollection 
of the pledge he had signed. Farmer Johnson's minister was in favor 
of pledges, and had often told him that affliction might weaken his 
judgment and his moral sense, and that the pledge might save him at 
last, as a plank saves the life of a mariner who is tossed upon the waves. 
Our good clergyman was unfortunately of a different opinion; he had 
often disapproved of pledges. The deacon was of the same opinion; he 
thought very illy of pledges. 

Month after month passed away, and our happiness was utterly de- 
stroyed. My husband neglected his business, and poverty began to 
stare us in the face. Notwithstanding my best exertions, it was hard 
work to keep my little ones decently clothed and sufficiently fed. If 
my husband earned a shilling, the dramseller was as sure of it as if it 
were already in his till. I sometimes thought I had lost all my affection 
for one who had proved so entirely regardless of those whom it was his 
duty to protect and sustain ; but when I looked in the faces of our little 
children the recollection of our early marriage days and all his kind 
words and deeds soon taught me the strength of the principle that had 
brought us together. 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

1 shall never eease to remember the anguish I felt when the con- 
<k him tojai] upon the dramseller's execution. Till that mo- 
ment [did not believe thai cay affection could have survived under the 
of that misery which he had brought upon us all. 1 put up 
Buoh things ol the Little that remained to us as 1 thought might be of 
. and turned my back upon a spot, where I had been very happy and 
ohed. <>ur five little children followed, weeping bitterly. The 
jail was situated in the next town. "0 George !" said I, "if you had 
only Bigned the pledge, it would not have come to this." lie sighed, 
and said nothing; and we walked nearly a mile in perfect silence. 

As we wire Leaving the village we encountered our clergyman going 
h upon his morning ride. When I reflected that a few words from 
him would have induced my poor husband to sign the pledge, and that, 
if he had done so, he might have been the kind father and the affection- 
husband that he once was, 1 own it cost me some considerable 
effort to suppress my emotions. "Whither are you all going ?" said 
the holy man. My husband, who had always appeared extremely hum- 
ble in presence of the minister, and replied to all his inquiries in a sub- 
dued tone of voice, answered with unusual firmness : " To jail, reverend 
sir." "To jail! " said he. " Ah I see how it is ; you have wasted your 
substance in riotous living, and are going to pay for your improvidence 
and folly. You have had the advantage of my precept and example, 
and you have turned a deaf ear to the one and neglected the other." 
" Reverend sir," my husband replied, galled by this reproof, which ap- 
peared to him at that particular moment an unnecessary aggravation of 
ttisery — *• reverend sir, your precept and your example have been my 
ruin: I have followed them both. You, who had no experience of the 
temptations to which your weaker brethren are liable who are already 
addicted to the temperate and daily use of ardent spirits, advised me 
never to sign a pledge. I have followed your advice to the letter. You 
admitted that ext inordinary occasions might justify the use of ardent 
spirits and that on such occasions you might use it yourself. I fol- 
lowed your example; but it has been my misfortune never to drink 
spirituous liquors without finding that my occasions were more extra- 
v. Had 1 followed the precept and example of my 
ghbor Johns ft, I should not have made a good wife miserable, nor 

bildren beggars." 

Wbile he uttered these last words my poor husband looked upon 

Little <>n<>< and burst into tears, and the minister rode slowly away 

without uttering a word. I rejoiced, even in the midst of our misery, 

to see thai the bearl of my poor George was tenderly affected ; for 

not more needful that the hardness of wan should be subdued 

by fire than that the heari of man should be softened by affliction 

i Leep and lasting in can be made. " Dear husband," 

: [a not tor; late; lei as trust in God, and alL 



L. M. Sargent, Esq. 49 

may yet be well." He made no reply, but continued to walk on and 
weep in silence. 

Shortly after the deacon appeared at some distance coming towards 
us on the road ; but as soon as he discovered who we were he turned 
away into a private path. Even the constable seemed somewhat touched 
with compassion at our situation, and urged us to keep up a good heart, 
for he thought some one might help us when we least expected it. My 
husband, whose vein of humor would often display itself even in hours 
of sadness, instantly replied that the good Samaritan could not be far 
off, for the priest and the Levite had already passed by on the other 
side. But he little thought— poor man — that even the conclusion of 
this beautiful parable was so likely to be verified. 

A one-horse wagon at this moment appeared to be coming down 
the hill behind us at an unusually rapid rate, and the constable advised 
us, as the road was narrow, to stand aside and let it pass. It was soon 
up with us; and when the dust had cleared away it turned out, as little 
Robert had said when it first appeared on the top of the hill, to be 
Farmer Johnson's gray mare and yellow wagon. The kind-hearted 
farmer was out in an instant, and, without saying a word, was putting 
the children into it one after another. A word from Farmer Johnson 
was enough for any constable in the village. It was all the work of a 
moment. He shook my husband by the hand; and when he began, 
'•Neighbor Johnson, you are the same kind friend — " ''Get in," said 
he; "let's have no words about it. I must be home in a trice, for," 
turning to me, "your old schoolmate, Susan, my wife, will sit crying 
at the window till she sees you all safe home again.' ' Saying this, he 
whipped up the gray mare, who, regardless of the additional load, went 
up the hill faster than she came down, as though she entered into the 
spirit of the whole transaction. 

It was not long before we reached the door of our cottage. Farmer 
Johnson took out the children ; and, while I was trying to find words to 
thank him for all his kindness, he was up in his wagon and off before I 
could utter a syllable. Robert screamed after him to tell little Tim 
Johnson to come over, and that he should have all his pinks and mari- 
golds. When we entered the cottage there were bread, and meat, and 
milk upon the table, which Susan, the farmer's wife, had brought over 
for the children. I could not help sobbing aloud, for my heart was 
full. "Dear George," said I, turning to my husband, "you used to 
pray; let us thank God for this great deliverance from evil." "Dear 
Jenny," said he, "I fear God will scarcely listen to my poor prayers 
after all my offences; but I will try." 

We closed the cottage door, and he prayed with so much humility of 

heart, and so much earnestness of feeling, that I felt almost sure that 

grace would be lighted up in the bosom of this unhappy man, if 

sighs and tears and prayers could win their way to heaven. He was 



50 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

very grave, and said little or nothing that night. The next morning, 
when I woke up, I was surprised, as the sun had not risen, to find that 
he had already gone down. At first I felt alarmed, as such a thing had 
become unusual with him of late years ; but my anxious feelings were 
agreeably relieved when the children told me their father had been hoe- 
ing for an hour in the potato-field, and was mending the garden fence. 
With our scanty materials, I got ready the best breakfast I could, and 
he sat down to it with a good appetite, but said little ; and now and 
then I saw the tears starting into his eyes. 

I had many fears that he would fall back into his former habits 
whenever he should meet his old companions, or stop in again at the 
deacon's store. I was about urging him to move into another village. 
After breakfast he took me aside and asked me if I had not a gold ring. 
" George," said I, "that ring was my mother's; she took it from her 
finger and gave it to me the day that she died. I would not part with 
that ring unless it were to save life. Besides, if we are industrious and 
honest we shall not be forsaken." " Dear Jenny," said he, " I know how 
you prize that gold ring ; I never loved you more than when you wept 
over it while you first told me the story of your mother's death ; it was 
just a month before we were married, the last Sabbath evening in May, 
Jenny, and we were walking by the river. I wish you would bring me 
that ring." 

Memory hurried me back in an instant to the scene — the bank upon 
the river's side, where we sat together and agreed upon our wedding- 
day. I brought down the ring, and he asked me with such an earnestness 
of manner to put it on his little finger that I did so ; not, however, without 
a trembling hand and a misgiving heart. " And now, Jenny," said he 
as he rose to go out, " pray that God will support me." 

My mind was not in a happy state, for I felt some doubt of his in- 
tentions. From a little hill at the back of our cottage we had a fair 
view of the deacon's store. I went up to the top of it ; and while I 
watched my husband's steps no one can tell how fervently I prayed 
God to guide them aright. I saw two of his old companions standing at 
the store-door with glasses in their hands; and, as my husband came in 
front of the shop, I saw them beckon him in. It was a sad moment for 
me. " George! " said I, though I knew he could not hear me, "go 
on ; remember your poor wife and your starving children ! " My heart 
sunk within me when I saw him stop and turn towards the door. He 
shook hands with his old associates ; they appeared to offer him their 
glasses. I saw him shake his head and pass on. "Thank God! " said I, 
and ran down the hill with a light step, and, seizing my baby at the 
cottage-door, 1 literally covered it with kisses and bathed it in tears of 
joy. 

About ten o'clock Richard Lane, the squire's office-boy, brought in 
a piece of meat and some meal, saying my husband sent word that he 



L. M. Sargent, Esq. 51 

could not be home till night, as he was at work on the squire's barn. 
Richard added that the squire had engaged him for two months. 

He came home early, and the children ran down the hill to meet him. 
He was grave, but cheerful. " I have prayed for you, dear husband, 55 
said I. " And a merciful God has supported me, Jenny," said he. It 
is not easy to measure the degrees of happiness ; but, take it altogether, 
this, I think, was the happiest evening of my life. If there is great joy 
in heaven over a sinner that repenteth, there is no less joy in the heart 
of a faithful wife over a husband that was lost and is found. 

In this manner the two months went away. In addition to his com- 
mon labor he found time to cultivate the garden, and make and mend 
a variety of useful articles about the house. It was soon understood 
that my husband had reformed, and it was more generally believed 
because he was a subject for the gibes and sneers of a large number of 
the deacon's customers. My husband used to say, Let those laugh that 
are wise and win. He was an excellent workman, and business came in 
from all quarters. He was soon able to repay neighbor Johnson ; and 
our families lived in the closest friendship with each other. 

One evening Farmer Johnson said to my husband that he thought it 
would be well for him to sign the temperance pledge; that he did not 
advise it when he first began to leave off spirit, for he feared his strength 
might fail him. " But now," said he, " you have continued five months 
without touching a drop, and it would be well for the cause that you 
should sign the pledge." 

"Friend Johnson," said my husband, " when a year has gone safely 
by I will sign the pledge. For five months, instead of the pledge, I 
have, in every trial and temptation — and a drinking man knows well the 
force and meaning of those words — I have relied upon this gold ring to 
renew my strength and remind me of my duty to God, to my wife, to 
my children, and to society. Whenever the struggle of appetite has 
commenced I have looked upon this ring. I have remembered that it 
was given with the last words and dying counsels of an excellent mother 
to my wife, who placed it there; and, under the blessing of Almighty 
God, it has proved, thus far, the life-boat of a drowning man." 

The year soon passed away, and on the very day twelvemonth on 
which I had put the ring upon my husband's finger Farmer Johnson 
brought over the temperance book. We all sat down to the tea-table 
together. After supper was done little Robert climbed up and kissed 
his father, and, turning to Farmer Johnson, " Father," said he, "has 
not smelt like old Isaac, the drunken fiddler, once since we rode home 
in your yellow wagon." The farmer opened the book ; my husband 
signed the pledge of the society, and, with tears in his eyes, gave me 
back — ten thousand times more precious than ever — my mother's gold 
ring. 



REV. LEBBEUS ARMSTRONG. 



THE first temperance society ever organized with regular 
constitution and by-laws was at Moreau, county of Sara- 
i. New York, on the 9th of March, 1808. Dr. Billy 
J. Clark, who had read Dr. Benjamin Hush's essay on "Ar- 
dent Spirits," went to consult Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong, then 
pastor of the Congregational Church in Moreau, and before 
taking his seat exclaimed : " Mr. Armstrong, I have come 
to see you on important business." Then, lifting up both 
hands, he continued : " We shall all become a community of 
drunkards in this town unless something is done to arrest the 
progress of intemperance." The result was that a constitu- 
tion was drawn up and forty-three names were signed, in- 
cluding those of Billy J. Clark and Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong. 
The constitution contained fifteen articles, among which 
were the following : 

14 Art. IV. No member shall drink rum, gin, whiskey, wine, or any 
distilled spirits, or compositions of the same, or any of them, except by 
advice of a physician, or in case of actual disease; also, excepting wine 
at public dinners, under penalty of twenty-five cents; provided that 
this article shall not infringe on any religious ordinance. 

"Sec. 2. No member shall be intoxicated, under penalty of fifty 
cents. 

"Sec. 3. No member shall offer any of said liquors to any other 
meml »(•]•, or urge any other person to drink thereof, under penalty of 
twenty-five cents for each offence." 

This pledge lasted until October, 1843, when the society 
was reorganized upon the basis of total abstinence. The fol- 
lowing is a transcript of a resolution passed at that meeting 
as taken from the record of proceedings : 

of Dr. V>. J. Chirk, resolved, that the constitution 
I April, L808, be amended by adopting the * pledge of total ab- 

nll f/i/tf ca 

(I, That the subscribers to this constitution hereby pledge 

62 



Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong. 58 

themselves not to use, traffic in, or furnish intoxicating drinks to any in 
their employ, except as a medicine" 

The following address, by Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong, is taken 
verbatim from the original manuscript delivered before this 
society in Moreau August 25, 1808, and repeated by special 
request before the same society at their annual meeting in 
1843: 

Mb. President : Every institution which tends to encourage virtue, 
promote morality, and suppress vice is of importance to mankind, and 
ought to command due respect and esteem. Many institutions of this 
description are now extant. Some of them have proved successful in re- 
forming the vicious, and others have been more unsuccessful. 

In this enlightened age, and in this free country, where every man 
is at full liberty to adopt that system for the regulation of his own con- 
duct which he deems most congenial with his feeling and interest, it is 
hardly supposable that any one will rashly and precipitately agree in the 
adoption of any system until he has first surveyed its boundaries, de- 
veloped its interior principles, and weighed the sum-total of the conse- 
quences which will be likely to result from its operation. To think and 
act for himself, both in matters civil and religious, are privileges which 
every man claims as peculiar to his nature. 

Whenever a new institution is ushered into the world the first thing 
to be attended to is to examine the basis upon which the superstructure 
is reared, to investigate its pretended object, and trace its leading fea- 
tures from the original source to the effect which it has on society. If 
the basis on which it is founded is not inconsistent with reason and di- 
vine revelation ; if its apparent object is to reclaim what is wrong in man, 
and stimulate to a line of conduct congenial with the true happiness, 
the interest, and prosperity of society ; and, if there is ground of proba- 
bility that these will be the effects which it will produce in the opera- 
tion, the conclusion must terminate in its favor, and its adoption will be 
the voice of philanthropy and of wisdom. 

The formation of this Union Temperate Society in its present state 
is without a precedent and without a rival! It is the only institution of 
the kind now extant within the limits of our knowledge. The institu- 
tion is now upon the stage for the investigation of all who wish to be- 
come acquainted with it; and its virtual language to the community is, 
examine for yourselves and see whether it is worthy of your attention 
and patronage, or whether it merits your disapprobation and deserved 
odium. Espousing its professed principles, and confidently believing 
that its object is to promote the good of society, I appear before you 
this day in the vindication of the institution now under consideration. 

The formation of this society has excited the attention of curious in- 



54 Foot- Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

quirers, the result of which has already been a diversity of opinions 

*i\v to its effects upon the conduct of its adherents. Some view it 

. deprivation of the liberties peculiar to the appetite, and as an in- 
fringement on the natural rights of man; while others turn the whole 
BQbjecl into ridicule, and make sport of the institution which inculcates 
■ liable restraint. To bring all men to think alike on every subject 
can never be expected while the human heart is governed and biassed by 
such I variety of motives and propensities. In common with others of 
my fellow-men I claim the privilege of adopting sentiments for myself, 
and am willing that others should enjoy the same privilege. 

In my view of tilings the basis on which the institution under con- 
sideration is founded is a conviction of the unhappy consequences re- 
sulting to society from the prevalent and, in many instances, the intem- 

,ie use of spirituous liquors. To remedy this long-established and 
deep-rooted evil; to eradicate it from society; render it odious and de- 
test able, and to substitute temperance, sobriety, and virtue in its room, 
are the professed objects of this institution. To what degree these ob- 
jects will be attainable, or what will be their utility and effect upon the 
respective members of the society or the community at large, time alone 
can determine. 

That the professed object of the institution is good will appear, first, 
from a consideration of the unhappy consequences resulting to indi- 
viduals and to society at large from the intemperate use of spirituous 
liquors ; and, secondly, from the happy consequences resulting from a 
life of temperance and sobriety. 

When we look around us and take a view of society at large we dis- 
cover a numerous train of evils existing which, to all human probability, 
are drowning many of the human race in ruin, or leading them onward 
in the road to perdition. Tracing the sources of these evils up to their 
fountain, we find the greatest part of them originating from an intem- 
p* rate ose of spiritous liquors. It does not fall within my province to 
point out the effects of spirituous liquors upon the human body in the 
production of an universal debilitation of the nervous and muscular 

tem until life falls a prey to disease and death. This is a truth 
which can be investigated to better advantage by those who are versed 
in the theory of phjstc 

unhappy consequences result fag to individuals and to the com- 
munity at large from the frequent and intemperate use of spirituous li- 
inoible from outward circumstances which those of but or- 
dinary abilit i table of discerning. In recognizing past occur- 
renoes of life which have fallen within the compass of our knowledge, 
tie r : haps, but who oan adwrl to melancholy instances of 
ruinous and deetruotive effects of spirituous liquors in the loss of 
;, of property, of happiness, and, iiually, the loss of life it- 



Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong. 55 

How many of the human race who were once temperate and indus- 
trious, whose fair estates have been earned by the sweat of their brow, 
have fallen victims to poverty, shame, disgrace, and to death by aban- 
doning the principles of temperance and by giving themselves over to 
the brutal force of ungovernable appetite ! Though in the first forma- 
tion of this appetite there was but little apparent danger of such awful 
degeneracy and ruin, yet the seeds of destruction began to spring and 
grow the moment they had contracted an appetite for regular morning 
drams. This is generally the first beginning of intemperance. The 
habit of taking morning drains soon creates an appetite, which, being 
fostered and fed, grows, like the noxious plant, into a state of down- 
right intemperance. From this small beginning many have generally 
proceeded from step to step, till at length their appetite for spirituous li- 
quor overpowered every other faculty, and they gave themselves over to 
the force of intoxication. 

View a person of this description, and what is his situation? What 
is his character? What is his prospect of happiness, either in this life 
or in the life to come ? However industrious, frugal, and thriving he 
might have been, yet now he soon discovers the ruinous effects of in- 
temperance. Ihe first loss he sustains is character. This is gone al- 
most at one stroke. The next loss is property. Neglecting the proper 
and necessary attention to the business of life, if a farmer, everything 
around him soon wears the appearance of ruin ; if a mechanic, custom- 
ers forsake his shop ; if an attorney, no client will risk a cause at his 
disposal ; if a physician, the sick will not venture their lives in his hand ; 
and if a minister of the Gospel, the wicked will despise him, his hearers 
will withdraw from him, his friends will forsake him, and the sacred 
desk will declare that he is not a teacher sent from* God ! In all these 
instances the loss of property is an inevitable consequence. The sources 
of revenue being cut off, the capital stock will soon depreciate and scat- 
ter into oblivion. Thus the mind is filled with anxiety and perplexity — 
happiness is gone ; families are deprived of the necessary means of sub- 
sistence ; diseases, hovering round, light upon the vital part ; death at 
last closes the scene ! And what reception will be met with in the fu- 
ture world, let Divine Inspiration declare, and it will inform us that 
drunkards are denounced among the blacik catalogue of the enemies of 
holiness, who shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

The unhappy consequences of an intemperate use of spirituous liquors 
are felt by the community at large as well as by individuals. How often 
is the peace of society disturbed by unhappy quarrels, brawls, conten- 
tions, and even assault and battery, which sometimes end in bloodshed 
and death, and which owe their existence to the effect of spiritous li- 
quors ! Such cases occupy a great portion of time in our courts of jus- 
tice, which cost the community at large a heavy tax, and sometimes the 
loss of citizens. Instance the murder of John Scott in Catskill, which 



5G Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

lely the effects of spirituous liquors. After spending the evening 
in Oiling and emptying the jovial glass, a quarrel at length arose about a 
pipe and tobaooo, which terminated in bloodshed and in death ! With- 
out enumerating the Immense sums of money annually and daily ex- 
pended l>y the community for the importation of spirituous liquors, in- 

> of the above description are sufficient to evince the ruinous and 
resulting from the intemperate use of the fluid- 

If, therefore, the institution of this Union Temperate Society is 
founded on a conviction of the injury done to community by the intern- 
um of spirituous liquor ; if its professed object is to save its ad- 
herents from the path that leads to intemperance and destruction ; and 
if its plan of operation is such that in any probability it will be likely to 
even one from impending danger, or to save one from the con- 
traction of a habit so ruinous in its consequences, the balance must be 
found in favor of the institution, and it must be pronounced good. If 
so, it is worthy of the attention and patronage of all who become ac- 
quainted with it, and its utility and influence ought to be diffused 
through the community at large. 

Secondly, the happy consequences resulting to society from a strict 
adherence to its principles will abundantly compensate all pains that 
may be taken for its publicity and enlargement. The institution incul- 
an entire abolition of the use of ardent, distilled spirits, prescribes 
a number of useful and beneficial substitutes, and directs to measures to 
stimulate its adherents to a strict observance of its rules. Should its 
influence upon society prove even in a small degree commensurate to its 
ssed principles and object, advantages will be derived, not only of 
y nature, but also such as will render society happy. The 
ya which may be saved will enable the society to adopt such mea- 
minating useful and important knowledge as would do 
honor to any institution whatever. How much more happy is society 
when young and old can divert their minds and improve their under- 
standings at the same time by the perusal of useful, instructive, and re- 
ikfl than when they can be contented only in a confused com- 
pany at ilif tavern or grog-shop where all kinds of vicious habits are 
I and nothing obtained for the good of body or of soul ! A 
t«. the principles of this institution will tend to reform 
who hay< Licted to intemperance, and, instead of seeking 

and happiness from the bottom of their glass in the company 
•g-drinkers,* they will hereby be stimulated to seek for diversions 
and happinessin n< of enjoyment. Should their attention be 

oil from Btrong drink and an appetite be contracted for the acqui- 
sition of useful and important ki; , the advantage would be al- 

* Kum and water, with a tOMt in it, wan formerly called "grog." 



Rev. Lebbeus Armstrong. 57 

most incalculable. These, at least, may be some of the good things 
which may be hoped for and expected from a strict observance of the 
laws of this institution. Should these objects be obtained and their in- 
fluence on society be thus happy, we shall be favored with additional 
evidence of the utility and importance of the institution. 

From a review of the foregoing remarks, we are led to the conclusion 
that the only way to render this institution respectable and cause it to 
become beneficial to society is to attend to its principles and adhere to 
its dictates by using every exertion that may be made for contracting the 
habit of temperance among ourselves and encouraging it in others. It 
is thought to be a hard thing by some to deny themselves entirely the 
use of ardent spirits ; but what disadvantage can any person calculate 
from such abstinence ? To a person who has never, by regular drink- 
ing, contracted an appetite for liquor, entire abstinence can be no depri- 
vation of self-gratification at all ! 

And should a person plead that he considers it his privilege to gratify 
his appetite in the moderate use of ardent spirits, there may be more 
danger of an increase of appetite than he is aware of ! He may be on 
the very brink of falling into a state of intemperance. No person be- 
comes intemperate instantaneously. An appetite for strong drink, 
which generally ends in intemperance, is contracted by the regular habit 
of constant drinking ? Our institution devises an effectual remedy for 
this growing evil in a safe and reasonable restraint. If such restraint 
were productive of no apparent advantage to society it can surely do no 
harm. But advantages may safely be calculated, both to individuals and 
to society at large. And hence appears the importance of a strict ad- 
herence to the institution. We are all liable to the failings and frailties 
of human nature ; and none knows but what Grod, in His providence, 
has devised and superintended the erection of this institution to save 
some of 'us from unforeseen danger and impending ruin ! 

It would be an unheard-of instance if every individual person who 
has or shall subscribe to this institution should be entirely faultless. 
Perfection dwells not below. It is desirable that all should conduct 
with becoming propriety, and adopt and pursue that standard of recti- 
tude which will do honor to the institution, save their characters un- 
spotted from reproach, and save themselves from future destruction. 
But let not the enemies of the institution say (because some of its mem- 
bers deviate from the principles they profess) that the institution is not 
good ! This would be discovering an incongruity unbecoming the 
character of man. For if the utility of all institutions was measured by 
this rule not one of them would stand. Not even the holy institution 
of the Christian religion would be exempt from the general charge ; for 
many of its adherents, by profession, are not what they profess to be ! 
And even the family of the Saviour would fall under censure, for a Judas 
Iscariot was among them. 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers, 

To guard against the eyil propensities in man reduce them to a com- 
pliance with good rules, or render the |mpenitent offenders public ex- 
amples; for the restraint of others discipline is necessary in every institu- 
tion. Where this is neglected, and offences are committed with im- 
punity, nothing advantageous to society can be expected from this or any 
other institution on the earth. If we, my friends, have a desire that 
• ! may result from the formation of this society, then let us pay a 
per attention to thai Line of conduct which will be the most likely to 
Insure success. Lei every member consider that much of the good, the 
happiness, and prosperity of society depends on his own individual con- 
duct. And let us all consider that for all our conduct we must give ac- 
ini to Gtod, who will bring every work into judgment with every se- 
cret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil ! 



HON. REUBEN H. WALWORTH. 



WHEN Mr. Walworth was Chancellor of the State of 
New York and President of the New York State 
Temperance Society he delivered an address in 1832 
in which he said : 



"Though my public duties have not allowed me to participate in 
this great work in the manner I could have desired, I have witnessed 
with delight its rapid progress, and shall ever esteem it the highest 
honor I could have received from my fellow-citizens to have been per- 
mitted to connect my name with this institution, and to use the little 
>nal influence I possessed in aiding its operations. 
" In reviewing tie- progress of temperance for a few years past the 
\ < which have been produced in public opinion on this Important 
Bubjec nishing, even to its most sanguine friends. Audit fur- 

- t<» us all the highest encouragement to continue our exertions, 
until the common oseof ardent spirits shall be considered as disgrace- 
i open opposition to such use was once deemed unpopular; until 
ing men will no more think of making and vending ardent spirits, 
or of erecting and renting grog-shops as a means of gain, than they 
would now think of _r the well from which a neighbor obtains 

for his family, or of arming a maniac to destroy his own life, or 
the lives of those around him.'' 



REV. JOHN WESLEY. 



WHEN Wesley entered upon his public labors drunk- 
enness was the prevailing vice in England. It was 
at the time to which Smollett refers in describing 
the terrible debauchery of the gin-palaces. He formed his 
first "societies" in 1739, and first formulated the " General 
Rules of the United Societies " in May, 1743, which have 
been in practical operation in most of the Methodist churches, 
on both sides of the Atlantic, ever since. Among these rules 
was one forbidding "Drunkenness, buying or selling spiritu- 
ous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme 
necessity" 

This was a bold and radical position to take at that time, 
but it is not supposed that it had reference to fermented 
liquors, the phrase "spirituous liquors " having reference then 
to distilled spirits. But the exclusion of these was far in 
advance of the age. He imposed a similar rule upon his 
"Band Societies" also. In a single year in Newcastle alone 
seventeen persons were expelled from his "societies" for 
drunkenness, and two for retailing spirituous liquors. 

In 1745 Mr. Wesley wrote : 

"A word to a drunkard. 

"Are you a man ? God made you a man, but you make yourself a 
beast. Wherein does a man differ from a beast ? Is it not chiefly rea- 
son and understanding ? But you throw away what reason you have. 
You strip yourself of your understanding. You do all you can to make 
yourself a mere beast — not a fool, not a madman only, but a swine, a 
poor, filthy swine. Go and wallow with them in the mire ! Go, drink 
on, till thy nakedness be uncovered, and shameful spewing be on thy 
glory ! 

" Oh! how honorable is a beast of God's own making compared to 
one who makes himself a beast. But that is not all; you make yourself 
a devil. You stir up all the devilish tempers that are in you, and gain 
others which, perhaps, were not in you — at least you heighten and in- 

.7.* 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

them. You ran so the Ore of anger, or malice, or lust to burn 
times hotter than before. At the same time you grieve the spirit 

i till you drive Him quite away from you, and whatever spark of 
remained in your soul yon drown and quench at once." 

Those lines, written one hundred and forty years ago, con- 
tain not a thought that is not applicable to the present time. 
In 1780 he wrote : 

»"SIN OF DISTILLING AND SELLING SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS. 

" Neither may we gain by hurting our neighbor in his body. There- 
fore we may not sell anything which tends to impair health. Such is, 
eminently, all that liquid fire commonly called drams or spirituous 
liquors. It is true these may have a place in medicine ; they may be 
of use in some bodily disorders, although there would rarely be occasion 
for them were it not for the unskilfulness of the practitioner. There- 
fore such as prepare and sell them only for this end may keep their con- 
science clear. But who are they ? Who prepare them only for this 
end ? Do you know ten such distillers in England ? Then excuse 
these. But all who sell them in the common way, to any who will buy, 
are poisoners in general. They murder his majesty's subjects by whole- 
sale, neither does their eye pity nor spare. They drive them to hell like 
sheep ; and what is their gain ? Is it not the blood of these men ! Who, 
then, would envy their large estates and sumptuous palaces ! A curse 
is in the midst of them — the curse of God cleaves to the stones, the 
timber, the furniture of them ! The curse of God is in their gardens, 
their walk-, their groves — a fire that burns to the nethermost hell! 
Blood, blood is there ; the foundation, the floor, the walls, the roof are 
/ with blood! And canst thou hope, thou man of blood! 
_h thou art ' clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and farest sumptu- 
ously every day' — canst thou hope to deliver down thy fields of blood to 
the third generation ? Not so, for there is a God in heaven; therefore 
thy name shall soon be rooted out. Like as those whom thou hast de- 
stroyed, body and soul, ' thy memorial shall perish with thee.' " 

" This fa d< ar-bought gain. And so is whatever is procured by hurt- 

;r neighbor in his 80ttl; by ministering, suppose, cither directly 

or Indirectly, to his nnchastity or intemperance, which certainly none 

- any (ear of Gk>d or any real desire of pleasing Him. It 

ler this who hare anything to do with 

tavern! dling-houses, opera-houses, play-houses, or any other 

ihionable diversion. If these profit the souls of men, 

yon are el< employnn '1 and your gain innocent; but if 

ither sinful in themselves or natural inlets to sin of various 

then it I 1 aecount to make. Oh! be- 



Rev. Johx Wesley. 61 

ware, lest God say in that day, ' These have perished in their iniquity, 
but their blood do I require at thy hands ' " (/• Works,'' vol. i. 443). 

That tlie temperance pledge was known to the early Metho- 
dists long prior to the organization of the modern tempe- 
rance societies, says a recent writer, can be shown. The 
same writer, Rev. Henry Wheeler, says : 

"From all spirituous or distilled liquors he was a total abstainer; 
strong malt liquors he refused. All strong liquors, fermented or dis- 
tilled, he regarded as ' sure, though slow, poison,' and in the use of wine 
there is no proof that he went beyond apostolic advice — ' Drink no 
longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine 
often infirmities ' (1 Tim. v. 23). Wine-drinking or the use of any other 
intoxicating drink as a beverage is wholly inconsistent and incongruous 
with his life, character, and teachings. 

'• In 1TST he drew up for the use of his preachers a statement of 
what he conceived to be ' the duty of preachers to God, themselves, and 
one another.' In this he enumerates the means of grace, and designates 
them as instituted and prudential. He says: * Prudential means we 
may use either as Christians, as Methodists, or as preachers.' The fol- 
lowing questions are then asked : c Do you use only that kind, and that 
degree of drink which is best both for your body and soul ? [Do you 
drink water ? Why not ? Did you ever ? Why did you leave it off ? 
If not for health, when will you begin again ? To-day ? How often do 
you drink wine or ale ? Every day ? Do you want it ?] ' In 1789 the 
above, which we have enclosed in brackets, was changed to the follow- 
ing: * Do you choose and use water for your common drink, and only 
take wine medicinally or sacramentally ? ' That Mr. Wesley accepted 
the doctrine of total abstinence on the ground of expediency is clear 
from the following, which is to the point and quite conclusive: 

" ' You see the wine when it sparkles in the cup, and are going to 
drink it; I tell you, There is poison in it! and therefore beg you to 
throw it away. You answer, The wine is harmless in itself* I reply, 
Perhaps it is so; but still if it be mixed with what is not harmless no 
one in his senses, if he knows it, at least unless he could separate the 
good from the evil, will once think of drinking it. If you add, It is not 
poison to me, though it may be to others; then I say. Throw it away for 
thy brother's sake, lest thou embolden him to drink also. Why should 
thy strength occasion thy weak brother to perish for whom Christ died ? 
Now, let any one judge which is the uncharitable person, he who pleads 
against the wine for his brother's sake, or he who pleads against the life 
of his brother for the sake of the wine ?'" (Wesleyan Magazine, 1797, 
p. 4fi 



JOHN MARSH, D.D. 



REV. DI\. MARSH was born in Connecticut in 1788, was 
acquainted with nearly all the early temperance pio- 
neers, and took an active part in the inception of the 
temperance reform. He was secretary of the first State 
Temperance Society in Connecticut, and afterwards secretary 
of the American Temperance Union. In October, 1829, he 
was invited to deliver an address at Pomfret, Conn., and, tak- 
ing for his text the story of "Putnam and the Wolf," he 
gave a powerful address, which had a circulation of 150,000 
copies through one bookseller, and was then taken up and 
published as a tract, receiving a wide circulation all over the 
country. 

The following extract will show the nature of the ad- 
dress : 

" I remember, when a boy, reading a story which chilled my blood 

in ray veins; but which taught me never to sit down and try to bear an 

evil which might, by bold and persevering effort, be remedied. The 

y was this: A certain district of country was infested by a wild 

r. The nuisance was intolerable. The inhabitants rallied, and 

hunted it day and night, until they drove it into a deep den. There, 

with dogs, guns, straw, fire, and sulphur, they attacked the common 

bat all in vain. The hounds came back badly wounded, and 

refused to return. The smoke of blazing straw had no effect ; nor had 

the funics of burnt brimstone. The ferocious animal would not quit its 

it. And now the shadows of evening gathered around them. 

clock struck nine, and ten. And should they lose their prey ? 

/ must unless some one should be so daring as to descend into this 

den of monsters and destroy the enemy. One man offered to go ; but 

his neighbors remonstrated against the perilous enterprise. Perilous 

ind( ; but lire bo khey could not, and, stripping off his coat and 

>pe fastened around his legs by which he 

.iit be pulled back, he entered with a flaming torch in his hand, 

I foremost moei terrifying darkness appeared in front of the 

dim kfforded by his Light. It was still as the house of death. 

onward with unparalleled courage, he discovered the 

t, who was sitting at the extremity 



John Marsh, D.D. 63 

of the cavern. For a moment he retreated, but again descended with 
his musket. The beast howled, rolled its eyes, snapped its teeth, and 
threatened him with instant death, when he levelled, fired, and brought 
it forth dead, to the view of his trembling and exulting neighbors. 

" Little did I then think that I should one day see the country ral- 
lied on the same spot to hunt a more terrible monster, whose destruction 
will require Putnam courage. 

* The old enemy, gentlemen, which your fathers hunted about these 
hills and dales was visible to the eye, and could be reached with powder 
and ball ; but the enemy whom you assault is, like the foe of human 
bliss which entered the Garden of Eden, invisible, and therefore not to 
be described, and not to be destroyed by force of arms. That enemy 
did indeed, to effect his purpose, assume the form of a serpent ; and 
ours has been said, as belonging to the same family, to have occasional- 
ly the same aspect. A gentleman in Missouri has recently described a 
dreadful worm which, he says, infests that country. * It is of a dead 
lead color, and generally lives near a spring, and bites the unfortunate 
people who are in the habit of going there to drink. The symptoms 
of its bite are terrible. The eyes of the patient become red and fiery, 
the tongue swells to an immoderate size and obstructs utterance, and 
delirium of the most horrid character ensues. The name of this reptile 
is, " The worm of the still."' 1 suspect it is one of the same family 
which is infesting the peaceful villages of New England, and whose 
ravages have alarmed the country, and caused you this day to leave 
your homes and seek its destruction. I would not here inquire minute- 
ly into its history. It is said to have originated in Arabia, the country 
of the false prophet. The aborigines of our forests never knew it. 
They could proudly tread on the rattlesnake and copperhead, but never 
fell before the worm of the still. Oh ! woful day when it found its 
way to our coasts ; when here it first generated its offspring. 

" Yet there are men who think we belie it ; who say that we are 
needlessly alarmed ; that we are hunting a friend ; that we are driving 
one from our country without whose aid we can never check the ravages 
of disease, or perform our labor, or have any hilarity. It is not, say 
they, a poisonous foe. It is a pleasant cordial ; a cheerful restorative ; 
the first friend of the infant; the support of the enfeebled mother; a 
sweet luxury, given by the parent to the child ; the universal token of 
kindness, friendship, and hospitality. It adorns the sideboards and ta- 
bles of the rich, and enlivens the social circles of the poor ; goes with 
the laborer as his most cheering companion ; accompanies the mariner 
in his long and dreary voyage ; enlivens the carpenter, the mason, the 
blacksmith, the joiner, as they ply their trade ; follows the merchant to 
his counter, the physician to his infected rooms, the lawyer to his office, 
and the divine to his study, cheering all and comforting all. It is the 
life of our trainings, and town-meetings, and elections, and bees, and 



Foot-Print* of Temperance Pioneers. 

raisings, and harvest, and sleighing-parties. It is the best domestic 
medicine, good tot a oold and a cough, for pain in the stomach and 
weakness in the limbs, Lose of appetite and rheumatism, and is a great 

Support in old age. Il makes a market for our rye and apples; sustains 
a hundred thousand families who are distilling and vending, and pours 
annually millions of dollars into our national treasury. Had the wolf 
d the cunning of the fox, she would have told Putnam as smooth 
a story as this. But it would have made no difference. The old man's 
cornfields were fattened by the blood of his sheep, and he would give no 
quarter. And the blood of our countrymen has been poured out at the 
shrine of the demon Intemperance, and we must give none. Talk we of 
alcohol as a friend ! As well may a mother praise the crocodile which 
has devoured her offspring." 

After giving a sketch of the ravages of intemperance, in its 
waste of property, pauperism, crime, destruction of intellect, 
waste of health and life, murder of souls, waste of human 
happiness, etc., he said : 

"Such are the ravages of the demon we hunt. Its footsteps are 
marked with blood. We glory in our liberties, and every Fourth of 
July our bells ring a merry peal, as if we were the happiest people on 
earth. But oh ! our country, our country. She has a worm at her 
vitals, making fast a wreck of her physical energies, her intellect, and 
her moral principle; augmenting her pauperism and her crime; nulli- 
fying her elections— for a drunkard is not fit for an elector — and prepar- 
ing her for subjection to the most merciless tyranny that eve# scourged 
any nation under heaven. We talk of our religion, and weep over 
- of the false prophet and the horrors of Juggernaut ; but a 
more deceitful prophet is in our churches than Mohammed, and a more 

• ly idol than Juggernaut rolls through our land, crushing beneath 
sons and our daughters. Woe, woe, woe to Zion! Satan is 
in Eden. And if no check is put to the ravages of the demon, our be- 
Len1 institutions must die, our sanctuaries be forsaken, our beauti- 
ful fields be wastes, and the church will read the history of her offspring 
in the third of Romans : Their throat is an open sepulchre; their 

''h i.< full ,,i bitterness ; their feet are swift to shed blood 

— all blasting our bright hope of the speedy approach of millennial 

"Th hen. for the general alarm that has been excited in 

our 0OU1 this extensive and powerful combination to 

hunt and destroy the monster. Much, by divine help, has been done. 
He ad brought to the light of day; the mischief he 

has I : his apologists have been confronted ; he is 

driven into his den, and now how can he be destroyed? That he must 



Hon. Thomas Jeffersox. 65 

be destroyed there can be no question. The man who does not wish 
for the suppression of intemperance must have the heart of a fiend ; es- 
pecially if he wishes to grow rich on the miseries of his fellow-men. 
And lie must be destroyed now. It is now or never. Men may say 
enough has been done, and talk about his being held where he is. He 
cannot be held there. He has the cunning of a serpent, and he will 
escape through some fissure in the rock. He is now in our power. The 
temperance movement, which has on it the impress of the finger of 
God, has brought him within our grasp; and if we let him escape the 
curse of curses will be entailed upon our children. How, then, can he 
be destroyed ? I answer, and thousands answer, by starvation. No 
weapon can reach him so long as you feed him. But who has a heart 
so traitorous to humanity as to feed this monster ? Every man who 
now, in the face of the light that is shed upon this subject, distils, or 
vends, or uses intoxicating liquor ; every distillery and every dram- 
shop in the land nourishes this foe to human peace ; every man who 
takes the alcoholic poison into his system, or imparts it to others, ex- 
cept as he takes and imparts other poisons to check disease, gives life to 
the beast. I need not stop to prove it. It is manifest to the- child. 
Let every distillery in the land cease, and every dram-shop be closed, 
and total abstinence become the principle of every individual, and the 
demon will be dead; yes, take away from him his wine, his brandy, and 
his whiskey, and he will- perish for ever. But here is the very brunt of 
the battle. We have hunted the monster through the land, and driven 
him into his den ; and now we must stand at the very mouth of the 
cavern, and contend with our fellow-men and fellow-sufferers — yes, and 
fellow-Christians, too — who are either afraid to attack the monster, or 
are determined he shall live." 



HON. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



THE "Temperance Text-Book/' issued in 1836, quotes 
the following from Thomas Jefferson, President of the 
United States : 

u The habit of using ardent spirit by men in public office has occa- 
sioned more injury to the public service and more trouble to me than 
any other circumstance which has occurred in the internal concerns of • 
the country during my administration ; and were I to commence my 
administration again, with the knowledge which, from experience, I 
have acquired, the first question which I would ask with regard to every 
candidate for office should be, Is he addicted to the use of ardent spirit ? " 




GO 



GEO. B. CHEEVER, D.D. 



EEV. DR. CHEEVER, a young minister in Salem, 
Mass., in 1835, published a dream, entitled "Deacon 
Giles's Distillery," which was one of the " most mas- 
terly and effective blows ever inflicted on the liquor-system 
up to the date of publication." There were four distilleries, 
producing six hundred thousand gallons annually, in his im- 
mediate vicinity ; and of three thousand persons admitted to 
the workhouse, within a few minutes' walk of his study, two 
thousand and nine hundred were brought there directly or 
indirectly through intemperance. Over these, and the un- 
told corruption, Sabbath desecration, and ruin of souls con- 
nected with them, he could not sleep, and if he slept he 
dreamed. "And it was not all a dream." He wrote an 
article for the Salem Landmark, which was published, and 
which created an intense excitement. A certain Deacon 
Jones, who was a distiller, and who also sold Bibles, caused 
Mr. Cheever to be indicted and tried for " false, scandalous, 
indecent, and malicious libel," and, after a long trial, during 
which he made an able vindication, he was convicted, fined 
.$1,000, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. We 
give the dream in full, as it appeared in the Salem Land- 
mark at the time : 

(For the Salem Landmark.) 
" INQUIRE AT AMOS GILES'S DISTILLERY." 

Some time ago the writer's notice was arrested by an advertisement 
in one of the newspapers, which closed with words similar to the follow- 
ing: " Inquire at Amos Giles's Distillery." The reader may suppose, if 
he choose, that the following story was a dream suggested by that 
phrase. 

Deacon Giles was a man who loved money, and was never troubled 
with tenderness of conscience. His father and his grandfather before 
him had been distillers, and the same occupation had come to him as an 

G7 



68 Footprints of Temperance Pioneers. 

heirloom in the family. The still-house was black with age, as well as 
with the smoke of furnaoes that never went out, and the fumes of tor- 
tured ingredients oeaselesaly converted into alcohol. It looked like one 
of Vulcan's stithies translated from the infernal regions into this world. 
It- stench filled the atmosphere, and it seemed as if drops of poisonous 
alcoholic perspiration might be made to ooze out from any one of its 
timbers or olapboards at a slight pressure. Its owner was a treasurer to 
a Bible society, and he had a little counting-room in one corner of the 
distillery where he sold Bibles. 

He thai is greedy of gain troubleth Ms own hoitse. Any one of those 
Bibles might have told him this, but he chose to learn it from experi- 
ence. It was said that the worm of the still lay coiled in the bosom of 
his family, and certain it is that one of its members had drowned him- 
self in a vat of hot liquor, in the bottom of which a skeleton was some 
time after found, with a heavy weight tied to the ankle-bones. More- 
over, Deacon Giles's temper was none of the sweetest naturally, and the 
liquor he drank and the fires and spirituous fumes among which he lived 
did nothing to soften it. If his workmen sometimes fell into his vats, 
he himself oftener fell out with his workmen. This was not to be won- 
dered at, considering the nature of their wages, which, according to no 
unfrequent stipulation, would be as much raw rum as they could drink. 

Deacon Giles worked on the Sabbath. He would neither suffer the 
fires of the distillery to go out or to burn while he was idle; so he kept 
as busy as they. One Saturday afternoon his workmen had quarrelled, 
and all went off in anger. He was in much perplexity for want of 
hands to do the work of the devil on the Lord's day. In the dusk of 
the evening a gang of singular-looking fellows entered the door of the 
distillery. Their dress was wild and uncouth, their eyes glared, and 
their language had a tone that was awful. They offered to work for 
the deacon, and he on his part was overjoyed, for he thought within 
himself that, as they had probably been turned out of employment else- 
where, he could engage them on his own terms. 

He made them his accustomed offer — as much rum every day when 
the work was done as they could drink — but they would not take it. 
Some of them broke out and told him that they had enough of hot 
thin they came from without drinking damnation fin the distil- 

lery. And when they said that it seemed to the deacon as if their 

■Ah burned blue: but he was not certain, and could not tell what 

to make ol it. Then he offered them a pittance of money; but they set 

up such a laugh that he thought the roof of the building would fall in. 

manded a sum which the deacon said he could not give, and 

of workmen that ever lived, much less to 

ial-looldng scape-jails as they. Finally he said he would give 

half what they asked, if they would take two-thirds of that in Bibles. 

When he mentioned the word Bibles they all looked towards the door 



Geo. B. Cheever, D.D. 69 

and made a step backwards, and the deacon thought they trembled ; but 
whether it was with anger or delirium tremens, or something else, lie 
could not tell. However, they winked and made signs to each other, 
and then one of them, who seemed to be the head man, agreed with 
the deacon that if he would let them work by night instead of day 
they would stay with him awhile and work on his own terms. To this 
he agreed, and they immediately went to work. 

The deacon had a fresh cargo of molasses to be worked up, and a 
great many hogsheads then in from his country customers to be filled 
with liquor. When he went home he locked up the doors, leaving the 
distillery to his new workmen. As soon as he was gone you would have 
thought that one of the chambers of hell had been transported to earth 
with all its inmates. The distillery glowed with fires and burned hotter 
than ever before ; and the figures of the demons passing to and fro, and 
leaping and yelling in the midst of their work, made it look like the 
entrance to the bottomless pit. 

Some of them sat astride the rafters, over the heads of the others, 
and amused themselves with blowing flames out of their mouths. The 
work of distilling seemed play to them, and they carried it on with 
supernatural rapidity. It was hot enough to have boiled the molasses 
in any part of the distillery; but they did not seem to mind it at all. 
Some lifted the hogsheads as easily as you would raise a tea-cup, and 
turned their contents into the proper receptacles ; some scummed the 
boiling liquids ; some, with huge ladles, dipped the smoking fluid from 
the different vats, and, raising it high in the air, seemed to take great 
delight in watching the fiery stream as they spouted it back again ; some 
drafted the distilled liquor into empty casks and hogsheads ; some stirred 
the fires ; all were boisterous and horribly profane, and seemed to en- 
gage in their work with such familiar and malignant satisfaction that I 
concluded the business of distilling was as natural as hell, and must 
have originated there. 

I gathered from their talk that they were going to play a trick upon 
the deacon that should cure him of offering rum and Bibles to his work- 
men; and I soon found out from their conversation and movements 
what it was. They were going to write certain inscriptions on all his 
rum-casks that should remain invisible until they were sold by the dea- 
con, but should flame out in characters of fire as soon as they were 
broached by his retailers or exposed to the use of the drunkards. 

When they had filled a few casks with liquor, one of them took a 
great coal of fire, and, having quenched it in a mixture of rum and 
molasses, proceeded to write, apparently by way of experiment, upon 
the heads of the different vessels. Just as it was dawn they left off 
work, and all vanished together. 

In the morning the deacon was puzzled to know how the workmen 
got out of the distillery, which he found fast locked as he had left it. 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

He was <till more amazed to find that they had done more work in one 
than oould haye been accomplished, In the ordinary way, in three 
weeks. Ee pondered the things do! ■ Little, and almost, concluded that 
it was the work oi supernatural agents. At any rate, they had done so 
much that he thought he could afford to attend meeting that day, as it 
was the Sabbath. Accordingly he went to church, and heard Ids minis- 
\ th.it God could pardon sin without an atonement, that the words 
hsU and devil were mere figures of speech, and that all men would cer- 
tainly be saved. He was much pleased, and inwardly resolved that he 
would send his minister a half-cask of wine; and, as it happened to be 
communion Sabbath, he attended meeting all day. 

In the evening the men came again, and again the deacon locked 
them in to themselves, and they went to work. They finished all his 
molas-es, and filled all his rum-barrels, and kegs, and hogsheads with 
liquor, and marked them all, as on the preceding night, with invisible 
inscriptions. Most of the titles ran thus: 

Consumption sold here. 

Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery. 

CONVULSIONS AND EPILEPSIES. 
Inquire at Amos Giles's Distillery. 

INSANITY AND MURDER. 

Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery. 

DROPSY AND RHEUMATISM, PUTRID FEVER, AND CIIOLERA 
IN THE COLLAPSE. 

Inquire at Amos Giles's Distillery. 

DELIRIUM TREMENS. 

Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery. 

Many of the casks had on them inscriptions like the following: 

DISTILLED DEATH AND LIQUID DAMNATION. 

Tlie Elixir of Hell for the bodies of those whose souls are coming there. 

me of the demons had even taken sentences from the Scriptures, 
and marked the hogsheads thus: 

WHO HATH WOE? 
Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery. 

WHO HATH REDNESS OP EYES ? 
Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery, 

Others had written sentences Like the following: 

A POTION PROM THE LAKE OP FIRE AND BRIMSTONE. 

I Giles's Distillery. 






Geo. B. Cheever, D.D. 71 

All of these inscriptions burned, when visible, a " still and awful 
red." One of the most terrible in its appearance was as follows: 

WEEPING AXD WAILING AXD GNASHING OF 1EETH. 
Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery. 

In the morning the workmen vanished as before just as it was dawn; 
but in the dusk of the evening they came again, and told the deacon it 
was against their principles to take any wages for work done between 
Saturday night and Monday morning, and, as they could not stay 
with him any longer, he was welcome to what they had done. The 
deacon was very urgent to have them remain, and offered to hire them 
for the season at any wages, but they would not. So he thanked them, 
and they went away, and he saw them no more. 

In the course of the week most of the casks were sent into the coun- 
try, and duly hoisted on their stoups in conspicuous situations in the ta- 
verns and groceries and the rum-shops. But no sooner had the first glass 
been drawn from any of them than the invisible inscriptions flamed out 
on the cask-head to every beholder : ; * Consumption sold here ; Delirium 
Tremens, Damnation, and Hell-fire." 

• The drunkards were terrified from the dram-shops, the bar-rooms 
were emptied of their customers; but in their place a gaping crowd 
filled every store that possessed a cask of the deacon's devil-distilled 
liquor, to wonder and be affrighted at the spectacle ; for no art could 
efface the inscriptions. And even when the liquor was drawn into new 
casks the same deadly letters broke out in blue and red flames all over 
the surface. 

The rumsellers and grocers and tavern-keepers were full of fury. 
They loaded their teams with the accursed liquor and drove it back to 
the distillery. All around and before the door of the deacon's estab- 
lishment the returned casks were piled one upon another, and it seemed 
as if the inscriptions burned brighter than ever. Consumption. Dam- 
nation, Death, and Hell mingled together in frightful confusion; and in 
equal prominence in every case flamed out the direction : 

"Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery.^ 

One would have thought that the bare sight would have been enough to 
terrify every drunkard from his cups and every trader from the dreadful 
traffic in ardent spirits. Indeed, it had some effect for a time, but it 
was not lasting, and the demons knew it would not be when they played 
the trick; for they knew the deacon would continue to make rum, and 
that as long as he continued to make it there would be people to buy 
and drink it. And so it proved. 

The deacon had to turn a vast quantity of liquor into the streets and 

burn up the hogsheads, and his distillery has smelled of brimstone 

-ince: but he would not give up the trade. He carries it on still; 



ot- Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

and every time 1 see his advertisement! " Inquire at Amos Giles's Dis- 
tillery," I think I Bee hell ami damnation, and he the proprietor* 

Dr. Oheeyer was permitted to make his defence before 
Chief-Justice Shaw, and we give a portion of his address : 

M Bui it ia argued that the business of distilling and selling ardent 

it is a lawful business, and that the vender of rum ought to be pro- 
d by the law from the reproach cast upon him through the scandal 
of his occupation. 1 acknowledge that it is a lawful business. From 
the catalogue of human crimes the State has singled out that traffic, 
which is the source of all crime, and has sanctioned its individual prose* 
oution for the Increase of the public revenue and the accumulation of 
private wealth. The business of murdering by the poison of alcohol is 

vlizi:d. The arm of the law is stretched out for its protection, and 
men are Licensed for public good to pursue this trade of death! But 
the fact that this business is legal does not make it right. No law of 
the land can supersede God's law, or convert sin into holiness. No 
law of the land can give to any man the moral right to make merchan- 
dise of the bodies and souls of his fellow-men, or to pollute and destroy 
them for gain. The fact that the business of distilling is legal can 
neither make it wrong nor unlawful for me or any individual to pro- 
claim its iniquity. It is the business of death, temporal and eternal, 
and the fact that it is legal only makes it so much the more important 

•amp it with infamy. All reform is arrested for ever, the march of 
improvement in society is stopped, and it has been justly said that we 
are thrown back into the dark ages, if the legality of any nuisance can 
shield it from investigation and attack. . . . 

" Now let me ask, Where rests the responsibility of this fearful ac- 
cumulation of death and crime? It cannot be doubted that it rests 
upon those who make and sell ardent spirit; for they know that that is 
the agent by which all this misery is produced. They know its destruc- 
t hey know that it is rank poison, in the class of nar- 
coi hie poisons, as sheer poison as henbane; they know that it 

kills the body and kills the soul. They cannot help knowing it; amidst 
all thp light poured upon this subject, there is not a dramseller nor a 

• iller in the land but knows it. 
11 The annual consumption of ardent spirit in the United States is at 

least calculation fifty-eight millions of gallons. There is a reason- 
able certainty that, for every thirteen hundred gallons made and sold, one 
human 1 and that every four hundred and eighty-three 

gallons made and sold prepares a fellow-creature for the prison or the 
lUSO. Tin- maker- and \ ■ ;' tin's fiery poison are therefore 

the dired hu I in filling the land with its paupers and criminals, 

I furnishing for the grave its conscriptions of fifty thousand annual 



Geo. B. Cheevek, D.D. 73 

victims. And to all the evils produced by the consumption of ardent 
spirit they are knowingly accessory. . . . 

" It is argued that they are not responsible for the abuse of this poi- 
son, and that it is no more immoral to manufacture rum than it is to 
make gunpowder. But they are responsible for the use of it, knowing, 
as they do, that that is to make drunkards. They know that the way 
in which it will be used is to produce intoxication; and if they knew 
the same of gunpowder, it would be just as immoral to make that. The 
very idea of success in their business goes upon the supposition that 
men will use it intemperately. If they used it as not abusing it, they 
would not use it at all; for it is a deadly poison, whose effects are 
not good, but only evil continually. To use it as a drink is to abuse it. 
If they used it as not abusing it, there would neither be a rum-distillery 
nor a dram-shop in the land. The distillery and the dram-shop are built 
upon men's graves. The stone out of the foundation and the beam out 
of the wall declare it. Death is their life, human misery their happi- 
ness. . . . 

14 The very existence of the distillery is the perpetual production of sin 
in opposition to the Gospel. It renders the Word of God itself of none 
effect to the souls of multitudes. Shall the minister of the cross preach 
the Gospel, and let this iniquity alone? Xay, but what is the Gospel? 
It is no mere meek and silent abstraction, but an energetic influence, 
that will be supreme or nothing. It will rule in all relations and occu- 
pations in life, and makes war upon all that are opposed to its nature. 
It is perfectly uncompromising, and will clear the world of sin. It de- 
clares itself against specific sins. It declares that the drunkard shall 
not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And it breaks out with a * woe unto 
him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and 
makest him drunken.' The Gospel of Christ is essentially an aggres- 
sive system — aggressive in its spirit, aggressive in its movements — and 
so it must continue as long as God's enemies are in the world. 

"I conceive it to be the duty of a minister of Christ not merely to 
preach the truth, but likewise to labor for the removal of all barriers 
that hinder its success. . . . 

" Could the amount of misery, in time and eternity, which any one 
distillery in Salem has occasioned, be portrayed before your honor, I 
should feel no solicitude for the result. Let the mothers that have been 
broken-hearted, the wives that have been made widows, the children that 
have been made fatherless, the parents borne down with a bereavement 
worse than death in the vices of their children, be arrayed in your pre- 
sence; let the families reduced to penury, disgraced with crime, and. 
consumed with anguish, that the owners of one distillery might accuniu- 
late their wealth, be gathered before you. Let the prosecutor in this 
suit go to the graveyards and summon their shrouded tenants; let him 
summon before you the ghosts of those whose bodies have been laid in 



?± Footprints of Temperance Pioneers. 

the grave from that one distillery; let him eall up, if he could, the souls 
that have been shut out from heaven and prepared for hell, through 
the instrumentality ol the liquor manufactured there; and let him ask 
what is their verdict N- ed 1 suppose the judgment? Surely it would 
be raid, Let the defendant he shielded. Even if ho has overstepped the 
limits of exact prudence in his efforts to portray the evils of intempe- 
rance, in the name of mercy let the great object of the effort shield him, 
and let the law be turned against that dreadful business whose nature 
he has aimed to delineate. '' 



DEACON JONES'S BREWERY. 

M You will be doing my work. 1 ''— Demon. 

Dr. Cheever also wrote an article entitled "Deacon Jones's 
Brewery." In his vision he saw a motley crowd of demons 
taking possession of the brewery, filling up a huge copper 
cauldron of boiling liquor with all sorts of ingredients, such 
as " opium, henbane, cocculus indicus, nox vomica, worm- 
wood, oil of vitriol," etc., etc., and as they danced around 
the cauldron they repeated something like the following : 

First Demon. 

Round about the cauldron go, 

In the poisoned entrails throw 

Drugs that in the coldest veins 

Shoot incessant, fiery pains ; 

Herbs that, brought from hell's black door, 

Do its business slow and sure. 

All in Chorus. 

Double, double, toil and trouble, 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

ral Demons successively, First, Second, Third, etc. 

This shall scorch and senr the brain, 
This shall mad the hear! with pain; 

This shall bloat the flesh with fire, 

This eternal t hirsl inspire; 
This shall savage lusi inflame, 

This shall Steel the soul to shame ; 

make all mankind contend 
ial friend. 






Geo. B. Cheever, D.D, 75 

All in Chorus. 
Double, double, toil and trouble, 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Second Demon. 

This shall brutalize the mind, 

And to the corporal frame shall bind 

Fell disease of every kind : 

Dropsies, agues, fierce catarrhs, 

Pestilential inward wars, 

Fevers, gouts, convulsive starts, 

Racking spasms in vital parts. 

And men shall call the liquor good, 

The more with death it thicks the blood. 

All in Chorus, 

Double, double, toil and trouble, 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

All the Demons in full Chorus, 

Mortals ! yours the damning sin ; 
Drink the maddening mixture in. 
It shall beat with fierce control 
All the pulses of the soul. 
Sweet the poison, love it well, 
As the common path to hell. 
Let the charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble. 

Double, double, toil and trouble, 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 






Hon. John Cotton Smith, in 1833, when Governor of 
Connecticut, and the question of prohibiting the liquor-traffic 
was under discussion, said : 

" I am decidedly of the opinion that all laws licensing and regulat- 
ing the sale of ardent spirits ought to be instantly repealed — first, be- 
cause, if intended as a source of revenue, they are manifestly immoral; 
secondly, if considered as sumptuary laws, which by their operation are 
designed to restrain the sale and consumption of that article, they are 
wholly inefficient; indeed, by legalizing they actually increase the traf- 
fic and consumption." 



JOHN G. PALFREY, A.M. 



REV. MR. PALFREY, pastor of the church in Brattle 
Square, Boston, delivered two powerful discourses on 
intemperance in 1827, which were published and 
added much to the literature of the early times. The fol- 
lowing is the conclusion of one delivered on Fast Day, April 
5, 1827 : 

"I cannot .avoid thinking that, as there is no darker stain on our na- 
tional morals, so there is no darker cloud over our political prospects — 
the prospect of the permanency of our free institutions — than this. I 
see not how this view can be gainsaid if it be true, as it is unquestion- 
able, that intemperance is an evil of vast extent among us; that it is a 
thorough corrupter of the mind; that the disorders of a depraved popu- 
lation almost demand a despotism, and make it acceptable, and that its 
services may always be bought to establish one. I never see the drunken 
crowd on our public days celebrating their freedom that I do not think 
they are then preparing themselves to part with it. I cannot but consider 
it as incumbent on us as good citizens, as friends to civil liberty and de- 

llfl to transmit its blessings, as careful for posterity and anxious to 

ire to them the privileges we so value for ourselves; I cannot but 

consider it as imperiously incumbent on us earnestly to inquire what we 

may do, and do with our might what we may, to stay for them the 

march of this appalling plague. I cannot but consider it to be so on 

the most general and admitted grounds. Scripture does not teach more 

emphatically than historical experience the doctrines that righteousness 

i a nation, and sin is the ruin as well as reproach of any people. 

masters of political wisdom have no weightier lesson to instruct in 

than thai under the just government of a holy God; great national sins 

drawdown great national judgments. Individuals 

for their retribution to the other world, and in this the wicked may 
: but nations are not known In the other world, and they meet 
their retribution here. But whatever be thought of our dangers and 
oblL philanthropists and Christians, our duty in 

is plain, ueral calamity afflict this land 

calling] Date and Christian men for sorrow, 

inquiry, concern, and effort I cannol now enter on an investigation 
so e u that into the means of exertion which offer some assur- 






John G. Palfrey, A.M. 77 

ance of success. But a useful beginning will have been made if we have 
come to see this day in any clearer light, how critical, how extreme the 
exigency is. If we are not altogether blind to it, human as we are, and 
therefore indifferent to nothing which affects the interests of men, our 
hearts cannot but bleed at the view of many thousands of our brethren 
and companions yearly taking that path to utter ruin, which once en- 
tered on there is scarcely strength in human nature to retrace ; involv- 
ing themselves by their own mad act in all the worst evils to which flesh 
is heir — wretched poverty, cruel disease, irreparable infamy ; 

" All the fiercer tortures of the mind, 

Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse," 

and spreading through the domestic and the social sphere, as far as their 
influence reaches, the fellowship of their own woes. If we are Chris- 
tians, we can scarcely think without shuddering sensibility of thousands 
of immortals killing the religious being within them, divesting them- 
selves of their congeniality with spiritual and heavenly natures, becom- 
ing like to the beasts that perish in all except those diversities of pre- 
sumptuous guilt which the beasts cannot imitate, and that responsible- 
ness whose penalties await them at the judgment-seat of a deeply-of- 
fended God. My friends, as lovers of men and as lovers of God, let us 
ask ourselves, liave we anything to do to arrest this sweeping current of 
evil ? Some of us have wealth, some station, some authority of some 
kind. Those of us who can do no more can set an example, and no 
good example was ever lost. What can we do — what is the most we can 
do, with all strenuous endeavors in our power, in this emergency? Let 
the question be weighed by each one of us with solicitude, solemnity, 
and prayer ; and may God, the source of wisdom, enlighten us with a re 
ply that where there is such a call for prudent, combined, and vigorous 
effort no one's aid may be wanting who has any aid to lend." 



Judge Platt, of New York, in 1832 said : 

" The law which licenses the sale of ardent spirits is an impediment 
of the temperance reformation. Whenever public opinion and the 
moral sense of our community shall be so far corrected and matured as 
to regard them in their true light, dram-shops will be indictable at com- 
mon law as public nuisances." 



Hem ax Humphrey, D.D., President of Amherst College, 
in 1833 said : 

" It is as plain to me as the sun in a clear summer sky that the 
license laws of our country constitute one of the main pillars on which 
the stupendous fabric of intemperance now rests." 



ALBERT BARNES, D.D. 



REV. DR. BARNES was one of the most vigorous and 
Bearching of the early writers. His "Throne of Ini- 
quity " is now among the publications of the National 
Temperance Society. His " Immorality of the Traffic " had 
an immense circulation. We present the following extracts : 

14 What is done, then, in this traffic? You are filling our almshouses, 
and jails, and penitentiaries with victims loathsome and burdensome 
to the community. You are engaged in a business which is compelling 
your fellow-citizens to pay taxes to support the victims of your employ- 
ment. You are filling up these abodes of wretchedness and guilt, and 
then asking your fellow-citizens to pay enormous taxes indirectly to 
support this traffic. For, if every place where ardent spirits can be ob- 
tained were closed in this city and its suburbs, how long might your 
splendid palaces for the poor be almost untenanted piles? how soon 
would your jails disgorge their inmates, and be no more filled? how 
soon would the habitations of guilt and infamy in every city become the 
abodes of contentment and peace? and how soon would reeling loath- 
teness and want cease to assail your doors with importunate plead- 
ings for charity? 

" Now we have only to ask our fellow-citizens what right they have 
to pursue an employment tending thus to burden the community with 
ud to endanger the dwellings of their fellow-men, and to send 
my door, and to every other man's door, hordes of beggars loathsome 
, r ht : or to compel the virtuous to seek out their wives and chil- 
dren amidst the Bqualidness of poverty, and the cold of winter, and the 
pinchingfl of hunger to supply their wants? Could impartial justice 
in the world an end would soon be put to the traffic in ardent 
spirits. Were every man bound to alleviate all the wretchedness which 
his business C i BUpport all the poor which his traffic causes, an 

made of this employment. But alas! you can diffuse 
this poison for gain, and then call on your industrious and virtuous coun- 
trymen to alleviate the irretchedness, to tax themselves to build granite 
tor He' b inch your business has made and splendid 

, to extend a shelter and a home for 
those whom your employment has turned from their own habitations. 

78 






Albert Barnes, D.D. 79 

Is this a moral employment? Would it be well to obtain a living in 
this way in any other business?" 

He closes as follows : 

" Again I appeal to my fellow-professing Christians; the ministers 
of religion, the officers and members of the pure church of God. The 
pulpit should speak, in tones deep, and solemn, and constant, reverber- 
ating through the land. The watchmen should see eye to eye. Of 
every officer and member of a church it should be known where he may 
be found. We want no vacillating counsels, no time-serving apologies, 
no coldness, no reluctance, no shrinking back in this cause. Every 
church of Christ the world over should be, in very deed, an organiza- 
tion of pure temperance under the headship and patronage of Jesus 
Christ, the friend and model of purity. Members of the Church of 
God most pure, bear it in mind that intemperance in our land, and 
the world over, stands in the way of the Gospel. It opposes the pro- 
gress of the reign of Christ in every village and hamlet, in every city, 
and at every corner of the street. It stands in the way of revivals of 
religion, and of the glories of the millennial morn. Every drunkard op- 
poses the millennium; every dram-drinker stands in the way of it; every 
dramseller stands in the way of it. Let the sentiment be heard, and 
echoed, and re-echoed all along the hills, and vales, and streams of the 
land, that the conversion of a man who habitually uses ardent spirits is 
all but hopeless. And let this sentiment be followed up with that other 
melancholy truth: that the money wasted in this business — now a curse 
to all nations—nay, the money wasted in one year in this land for it, 
would place a Bible in every family on the earth, and establish a school 
in every village; and that the talent which intemperance consigns each 
year to infamy and eternal perdition would be sufficient to bear the 
Gospel over sea and land— to polar snows, and to the sands of a burn- 
ing sun. The pulpit must speak out. And the press must speak. And 
you, fellow-Christians, are summoned by the God of purity to take your 
stand and cause your influence to be felt." 



Justin Edwards, D.D., writing of license laws in 1833, 
said : 

" Some say * the object of licensing b not to encourage the sale and 
use of ardent spirits, but to restrain anu prevent it.' To this we answer 
that it does not restrain and prevent it. It has been tried for more than 
half a century, and its fruits have been manifest in the living wretched- 
ness and dying agonies of more than a million of men. Notwithstand- 
ing all such restraint and prevention the evil constantly increased and 
well-nigh proved our ruin." 



HEMAN HUMPHREY, D.D. 



REV; DR. HUM PHB EY, President of Amherst College, 
wrote many able articles on temperance. In 1813 he 
wrote a series entitled, " The Causes, Progress, Effects, 
and Remedy of Intemperance in the United States." 

His debates of " Conscience with a Distiller, Wholesale 
Dealer, and a Retailer" had a wide circulation, and did an 
immense good. 

" Conscience" says to the Distiller after much debate : 

''Nay, but hear me through. Is it right for you to go on manufac- 
turing fevers, dropsy, consumption, delirium tremens, and a host of 
other frightful diseases because your property happens to be vested in 
a distillery? Is it consistent with the great law of love by which you 
profess to be governed? Will it bear examination in a dying hour? 
II bid you look back upon it from the brink of eternity, that you 
may from such recollections gather holy courage for your pending con- 
flict with the king of terrors? Will you bequeath this magazine of wrath 
and perdition to your only son not already ruined, and go out of the 
world rejoicing that you can leave the whole concern in the hands of 
one who is so trustworthy and so dear? " 

At a second interview Conscience says : 

"But I cannot close this interview till I have related one of the 
dreams to which I just alluded. It was only last night that I suffered 
in this way, more than tongue. can tell. The whole terrific vision is 
written in letters of fire upon the tablet of my memory; and I feel it all 
Che while burning deeper and deeper. 

u I thought 1 stood by a great river of melted lava, and, while I was 

wondering from what mountain or vast abyss it came, suddenly the field 

of my vision was extended to the distance of several hundred miles, and 

red that, f springing from a single source, this rolling 

-■•lit of fir 1 by numerous tributary streams, and these again 

by smaller rivulets. And what do you think 1 heard and beheld as I 

1 with astonishment and horror? There were hundreds of 

poor wr> iggling and jus! sinking in the merciless flood. As I 

ne still more attentively the confused noise of 

! profane merriment, mingled with loud shrieks of despair, 

Lted my ear.-. The hair of my head stood up, and, looking this way 

80 



Human Humphrey, D.D. 81 

and that way, I beheld crowds of men, women, and children thronging 
down to the very margin of the river — some eagerly bowing down to 
slake their thirst with the consuming liquid, and others convulsively 
striving to hold them back. Some I saw actually pushing their neigh- 
bors headlong from the treacherous bank, and others encouraging them 
to plunge in by holding up the fiery temptation to their view. To in- 
sure a sufficient depth of the river, so that destruction might be made 
doubly sure, I saw a great number of men, and some whom I knew to 
be members of the church, laboriously turning their respective contribu- 
tions of the glowing and hissing liquid into the main channel. This 
was more than I could bear. I was in perfect torture. But when I ex- 
postulated with those who were nearest to the place where I stood they 
coolly answered: ' TJiis is the way. in which we get our living ! ' 

" But what shocked me more than all the rest, and curdled every 
drop of blood in my veins, was the sight which I had of this very dis- 
tillery pouring out its tributary stream of fire! And oh! it distracts, it 
maddens me to think of it. There you yourself stood feeding the tor- 
rent which had already swallowed up some of your own family, and 
threatened every moment to sweep you away! This last circumstance 
brought me from the bed by one convulsive bound into the middle of 
the room ; and I awoke in an agony which I verily believe I could not 
have sustained for another moment. 

"Distiller. I will feed the torrent no longer. The fires of my dis- 
tillery shall be put out. From this day, from this hour, I renounce the 
manufacture of ardent spirit for ever." 

The debate with the retailer closes as follows : 
" Conscience. I am amazed at your blindness and obstinacy. It is 
now from three to five years since I began to speak (though in a kind of 
indistinct under-tone at first) against this bloody traffic. I have rea- 
soned, I have remonstrated, and latterly I have threatened and implored 
with increased earnestness. At times you have listened, and been con- 
vinced that the course which you are pursuing in this day of light is 
infamous, and utterly inconsistent with a Christian profession. But 
before your convictions and resolutions have time to ripen into action 
the love of money regains its ascendancy ; and thus have you gone on 
resolving, and relapsing, and re-resolving : one hour at the preparatory 
lecture, and the next unloading whiskey at your door; one moment 
mourning over the prevalence of intemperance, and the next arranging 
your decanters to entice the simple ; one day partaking of the cup of 
the Lord at His table, and the next offering the cup of devils to your 
neighbors ; one day singing, 

" 'All that I have and all I am 
I consecrate to Thee,' 

and the next, for the sake of a little gain, sacrificing your character, 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

and polluting all you can induce to drink! Oh! how can I hold my 

How can 1 Let you alone? [f you will persist, your blood and 

the Mood of those whom you thus entice and destroy be upon your own 

head. Whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, I shall not 

tnstrate; and, when 1 can do no more to reclaim you, I will 

down at your gate in the bitterness of despair and cry, Murder! 

: | MJRDERM I 
" Retailer {/"tie and trembling). ' Go thy way for this time; when 
I have a convenient season I will call for thee.' " 



REV. THOMAS P. HUNT. 



EEV. THOMAS P. HUNT, of Pennsylvania, was one 
of the most effective workers and eloquent lecturers of 
the early times. He was in the service of the Ameri- 
can Temperance Society, but in 1830 he accepted the posi- 
tion of agent of the North Carolina Temperance Society, 
and dealt heavy blows against the liquor- traffic. In one of 
his addresses he declared himself in favor of "guarding the 
rights of the liquor-sellers," and said : 

"But what are the rights of the liqnor-seller ? The same as the 
rights of any other man — the right to carry on his business without in- 
jury to others — and none other. If he can carry on his business with- 
out injury to others he may do so. But can he? The liquor-seller may 
Bay he has a right to carry it on provided he makes the damage good 
that his poison makes. I say to him: 'You cannot do it if you try. 
You cannot bring back the dead from the grave and the damned from 
hell, put there by your business. You cannot dry up the widow's tears, 
noi be the father to her children as he was before he fell in among you. 
The liquor-sellers' business cannot wipe away from the country the dis- 
<• of their business nor remove its curse from the land. Your busi- 

- has filled hell with groans unutterable and despairs never-dying; 
whil been heaving and mourning and groaning, filled 

with t } i e widows' and the orphans' voices, from the time your business 
has commenced to the present moment, and you cannot deny it." 



The voters of North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in the year 1829, 
by a vote in town meeting, ordered the selectmen of the town to post up 
the names of such p in their judgment drank too much spirits. 



HON. GERRIT SMITH. 



IN an address before the annual meeting of the American 
Temperance Society, in 1833, Hon. Gerrit Smith said : 

" There is one consideration which shows conclusively that this busi- 
ness of making and selling ardent spirit does not augment the wealth of 
the nation. We not only drink nearly all we manufacture, but we buy 
largely of other nations to answer the demands of our rum-thirst. If 
we manufactured spirit for other nations as we grow tobacco for them — 
worthless as are both the poisons, and clearly as they both should be, 
and yet will be, on every Christian's list of contraband goods — we might, 
perhaps, in that case find the business more profitable ; but we drink 
them ourselves, and therefore whatever is gained from the business by 
any individuals amongst us is gained from the pockets of their country- 
men. The vender who sells to his rum-drinking neighbor a gallon of 
spirit gets, it may be, his profit of a shilling ; but that shilling and the 
whole residue of the cost are so much loss to his neighbor. Would that 
this covered the whole loss of the unhappy man who drinks it ! That 
one gallon, it may be, drowns his soul in perdition ! . . . 

" As things now are, every nine sober men in this nation are bur- 
dened with the partial or entire maintenance of a drunkard ; for every 
tenth man is a drunkard ; and drunkard and pauper, as we know, 
are well-nigh interchangeable terms. And not only are the sober 
charged with the maintenance of the drunkard, but their contributions 
to public objects are greatly increased by the general inability of the 
drunkard to contribute to them. For instance, are there churches, 
school-houses, colleges, academies, roads, bridges to be built, ministers 
of the Gospel and school-teachers to be supported, taxes to be paid? 
Then the nine have to represent, and to pay for, the ten. . . . 

" All admit that a dense population is very important, if not indeed 
indispensable, to the success of manufactures. How greatly, therefore, 
would this interest suffer in our country by the loss of one-tenth or one- 
twentieth of our families? But this loss has virtually taken place. 
Drunkenness has disabled, has struck down this proportion of our fami- 
lies ; and, instead of contributing to our national industry, they are 
heavy drawbacks on it. Now the magic that would convert our three 
hundred thousand drunken men into three hundred thousand sober 
men would do more for the wealth, not to speak of the other valuable 
interests of our country ; would exert more powerful and happier influ- 
ences upon all the sources of our economical as well as moral prosperity 



84 Foot-Prints op Temperance Pioneers. 

than the imagination can conceive. Total abstinence is this magic. 
Banish ardent spirit from the land and this mighty and blessed change 
is wrought. . . . 

" Our laws are guilty of a gross inconsistency in upholding the rum- 
traffio, and, at the same time, suppressing less evils. This inconsistency 
be ascribed to the strong delusions wrought upon the public mind 
by the custom of rum-drinking. Compare, for instance, the very diffe- 
rent treatment which horse-racing and the rum-traffic receive at the 
hands of our laws. The one is very extensively interdicted, whilst the 
other is licensed and protected; and all must admit that, compared with 

rum-traffic, horse-racing is venial and harmless. Indeed, it is rum 
t hat clothes the race-course, and the lottery, and the gambling-house, and 
the theatre with their most horrid features ; and but for this grand ali- 
ment of our public vices they would all greatly languish and soon die. 
Extend the comparison to lotteries. The laws are fast suppressing 
them, whilst they leave the rum-trade to flourish ; and who will pre- 
tend that the evil of lotteries is as widespread and as malignant as that 
of rum-shops? Mark, too, the further inconsistency of the laws on 
this subject — the further evidence of their partiality for rumsellers. 
Whilst they punish drunkards, by posting them, by depriving them of 
their property and otherwise, they encourage and protect those who 
make these drunkards. Now, why may not they who get up lotteries 
and sell tickets, and they who get up the race and introduce their horses, 
claim a like indulgence from the laws, and that, if punishment must be 
visited on their business, it should fall on those who purchase the 
tickets and those who go to witness the race ? Why this difference? 
Why, in the lottery business, visit the punishment on the seller, and in 
the rum business on the buyer ? The general delusion produced by the 
custom of rum-drinking can alone account for the difference. To this 
same delusion must we ascribe the ludicrous and mad conduct of the 
authorities in some of our villages and cities during the pestilence the 
last year. They would hurry in their fright to abate as nuisances the 
business of the poor butcher on the one hand and that of the innocent 
dealer in hides on the other. They were full of anxiety about these 
rills of danger; but they thought not of the big stream of cholera and 
death which the sacred and inviolable grocery that stood between them 
was still suffered to pour out day and night. 

" II ep ii Kfl that the selfish interests of men do not rise up 

rum-traffic, and put it down for ever! I will use language 

re which I have used elsewhere: * In reference to the taxes with which 

the making and vending of ardent spirit load the community, how un- 

othera is t he occupation of the maker and vender of it! A 

town, for imtancc, contains one hundred drunkards. The profit of 

making these drunkards is enjoyed by some half a dozen persons; but 
the burden of these drunkards rests upon the whole town. Now I ask 



Mrs. L. H. Sigourxey. 85 

whether there would be one law in the statute-book more righteous than 
that which should require those who have the profit of making our 
drunkards to be burdened with the support of them? ' " 



MRS. L H. SIGOUMEY. 



THE following poem was written by Mrs. Sigourney for 
the American Quarterly Temperance Magazine in 1833 : 

"Only this once."— Exodus x. 17. 

" < Only this once '—the wine-cup glowed 
All sparkling with its ruby ray, 
The bacchanalian welcome flowed, 
And Folly made the revel gay. 

n Then he, so long, so deeply warned, 

The sway of Conscience rashly spurned, 
His promise of repentance scorned, 
And, coward-like, to Vice returned. 

" ■ Only this once ' — the tale is told, 

He wildly quaffed the poisonous tide ; 
"With more than Esau's madness sold 
The birthright of his soul, and died. 

" I do not say that breath forsook 
The clay, and left its pulses dead, 
But Reason in her empire shook, 
And all the life of life was fled. 

u Again his eyes the landscape viewed, 
* His limbs again their burden bore, 

And years their wonted course renewed, 
But hope and peace returned no more. 

" Yes, angel-hearts with pity wept, 

When he whom Virtue fain would save, 
His vow to her so falsely kept, 
And madly sought a drunkard's grave. 

" ' Only this once ' — beware! beware! 
Gaze not upon the blushing wine ; 
Oh ! fly Temptation's syren snare, 
And, prayerful, seek for strength Divine. 

" Hartford, Conn., August 1, 1833." 



JONATHAN KITTREDGE, ESQ. 



MR. KITTREDGE was one of the first to espouse the 
cause in New Hampshire, and in the year 1827 de- 
livered an address at Lyme on the effects of ardent 
spirits, from which we extract the following: 

" And here permit ine to make a few remarks upon the formation or 
creation of this taste. I will begin with the infant, and I may say that 

is born into rum. At his birth, according to custom, a quantity of 
ardent spirits are provided; they are thought to be as necessary as any- 
thing else. They are considered as indispensable as if the child could not 
be born without them. The father treats his friends and his household, 
and the mother partakes with the rest. The infant is fed with them, 
as if he could not know the good things he is heir to without a taste of 
ardent spirits. They are kept on hand, and often given to him as medi- 
cine, especially where the parents are fond of them themselves. By 
this practice, even in the cradle, his disrelish for ardent spirits is done 
away. lie grows up, and during the first months or years of his exist- 
ence his taste and his appetite are formed. As he runs about and be- 
gins to take notice of passing events he sees his father and friends 
drink; he partakes and grows fond of them. In most families ardent 
spirits are introduced and used on every extraordinary occasion. With- 
out mentioning many that the knowledge and experience of every man 
can supply I will instance only the case of visitors. A gentleman's 
friends and acquaintance call upon him. He is glad to see them, and 
fashion and custom make it necessary for him to invite them to the side- 
board. This is all done in his best style, in his most easy and affable 

I nner. The best set of drinking- vessels are brought forward, and 
make quite a display. The children of the family notice this; they are 
bed with the sight and the exhibition; they are pleased with the 
manners and gratified with the conversation of the visitors on the oc- 
casion. As soon as they go abroad they associate the idea of drinking 
tojr- b all that is manly and genteel. They fall into the custom 

and Imitate the example that is set them. Circumstances and situa- 
one to more temptations than the rest. Perhaps his reso- 
lution or his moral principle is not so strong; and in this way one out 
of twenty-five of those who live to thirty years of age becomes intern- 
lOi from any vicious principle, perhaps, but is 
at firs! led on by fashion and custom and favorable circumstances, till 

lasl heplnngee headlong into the vortei of dissipation and rain. Our 
natural for Bldeni spirits h first done away; a relish for them 

80 



Jonathan Kjttredge, Esq. 87 

is then created. They next become occasional, next habitual drinks. 
The habit gains strength, till at last the daily drinker is swept away by 
the first adverse gale. It is on this principle— and let the fact operate 
as a caution to those who need it— that many men of fair, unblemished 
characters, who have made a temperate but habitual use of ardent 
spirits in days of prosperity, have on a change of fortune become no- 
torious drunkards, while those who have refrained in prosperity have 
encountered all the storms of adversity unhurt. We frequently hear a 
man's intemperance attributed to a particular cause, as loss of friends, 
loss of property, disappointed love or ambition, when, if the truth were 
known, it would be seen that such men had previously been addicted to 
the use of ardent spirits, perhaps not immoderately, and fly to them on 
such events as their solace and support. Intemperance requires an ap- 
prenticeship as much as law or physic, and a man can no more become 
intemperate in a month than he can become a lawyer or a physician in 
a month. Many wonder that certain intemperate men of fine talents, 
noble hearts, and manly feelings do not reform, but it is a greater won- 
der that any ever do. The evil genius of intemperance gradually preys 
upon the strength of both body and mind, till the victim, when he is 
caught, finds that, although he was a giant once, he is now a child. Its 
influence is seductive and insinuating, and men are often irretrievably 
lost before they are aware of it. Let them beware how they take the 
first step ; it is by degrees that men become intemperate. No man ever 
became so all at once ; it is an impossibility in the nature of things. It 
requires time to harden the heart, to do away shame, to blunt the moral 
principle, to deaden the intellectual faculties, and temper the body. 
The intemperance of the day is the natural and legitimate consequence 
of the customs of society — of genteel and respectable society. It is the 
common and ordinary use of ardent spirits, as practised in our towns 
and villages, that has already peopled them with drunkards, and which, 
unless checked, will fill them with drunkards. 

" But have not ardent spirits one good quality, one redeeming virtue? 
None — I say none. There is nothing, not even the shadow of a virtue, 
to rescue them from universal and everlasting execration. But they are 
good as a medicine. No, not as a medicine. There is no physician that 
does not love them that needs them in his practice. There is no disease 
that they cure or relieve that cannot be cured or relieved without them. 
They add to no man's health, they save no man's life. It is impossible 
to name a single good thing that they do. Give them to the minister: 
do they add to his piety, to his zeal, to his faithfulness, to his love of 
God or man? Xo; they destroy them all. Give them to the physi- 
cian: do they increase his skill, his power to discriminate amid the 
symptoms of disease, his judgment to apply the appropriate remedies, 
his kind and affectionate solicitude? Nay; verily they destroy them all. 
Give them to the legal advocate : do they increase his knowledge, his 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

ptionto discover the points of his case, his readiness to apply the 
evidence, his ability to persuade a court and jury? No; they destroy 
them all. Give them to the mechanic: do they assist his ingenuity, 
his judgment, or his taste? Nfo; they destroy them all. (Jive them to 
the laborer: do they add to his strength ? Do they enable him to bear 
fatigue, to endure heal and cold? Can lie do more work, or do it bet- 
; they are the ruin oi* the whole. They reduce his strength, 
D Ins frame, make him more susceptible to the heat and cold, and 
disorganise the whole system of his labor." 



DR. W. R. SCOTT. 



DEL SCOTT delivered an address before the Ladies' Tem- 
perance Society of Sandy Hill, N". Y., in 1832, con- 
sisting of 169 ladies, whose constitution "prohibits the 
use of wine, ale, or strong beer, and all kinds of distilled 
liquors, unless they are prescribed as medicine by a temperate 
physician. 9 ' He gave the following reasons showing why 
" It is the duty of ladies to join temperance societies " : 

" ' 1. Because they are generally temperate themselves. 

il ' 2. Because they control the fashions of the day, and especially as 
it relates to the entertainment of company. 

" ' 3. Because the sphere of life in which they move, and the peculiar 
they are called upon to perform, render them more susceptible to 
feelings of humanity. 

" '4. Because they have great influence over men. 

11 '5. Because they can do more than men to prevent the formation 
of intemperate habits in the young. 

" ' 6. The last but not the least reason is that the heaviest calamities 
occasioned by intemperance fall on them.' 

u How can females assist in advancing the temperance reform ? 
"1. They can attend meetings of the society, and keep themselves 
informed upon its progress. 

" 2. They can refrain from using brandy or wine in cookery. 

i refrain from giving anything that will intoxicate to 
theii 

11 4. They can patronize temperance taverns and groceries. 

itain from forming any connection with one who 
habitually drinks distilled or fermented Liquors. 

"These fire things, scrupulously attended to by the mass of females, 
would promote the present and future happiness of thousands." 



CHARLES JEWETT, M.D. 



DR. CHARLES JEWETT, at his home in Connecticut 
in 1826, and while studying in his profession, had his 
attention specially called to the pernicious results of 
the liquor-traffic, and in a few years afterwards gave up a 
good practice to enter the field as a temperance lecturer, 
and during his "forty years' fight" with the drink demon 
he has dealt many a heavy blow with his pen as well as 
through his public lectures. His lectures largely partook 
-of the scientific and educational character, but in 1840 he 
wrote a "temperance poem" and delivered it before the 
Massachusetts Temperance Convention, from which we take 
the following extract : 

Oh ! with what horror shall the coming age 
Read that foul blot upon our history's page, 
Which tells of soulless men, learned in the laws, 
Who seconded their claim and plead their cause. 
Yes, God of Mercy, claimed that thou hast given 
To man the Right to shut the gates of heaven 
Against his brother-man — to coin his blood, 
And blot from him the image of his God. 
One such, at least, there is who labors hard 
To gain of infamy a rich reward. 
The haunts of sin are vocal with his praise, 
And should his name be called in future days, 
The widowed wife with inward dread oppressed, 
Shall clasp her orphan babes still closer to her breast. 

Alas! that men, for power, or place, or gain, 
Should basely lend their influence to sustain 
That most unrighteous system, red with blood 
Of human beings — and abhorred by God. 

Say ye that vice and wrong must be o'erthrown 
By the persuasive power of truth alone? 
Then act consistent and throw down the rod 
Of penal law; let murder stalk abroad 
89 



90 Foot-Trixts of Temperance Pioxeers. 

Free o'er the land, with none to make afraid; 
In' th«' , i npreared hand unstayed. 

ike from your statute every virtuous law 
Thai oan protect the innocent and awe 
The stern transgressor with its penalty, 
That vice may riot unrestrained and free. 
Draw out the felon from his dungeon ceil 
With his red torch, that midnight fires may tell 
Where falls his smot lie red vengeance on your land; 
And when ye see him lift the flaming brand 
To dial destruction on your own fair halls 
Fold up your arms, and as the ruin falls 
Beseech him calmly to desist, because 
He errs against the " spirit " of your laws 
And with their "general end," but yet are these 
14 Enforced by no specific penalties." 
Ye hypocrites, ye slaves of place and time, 
Ye dare not thus unfetter every crime. 
Ye hold a halter for the wretch who slays 
His fellow-man in aught but legal ways ; 
The thief who robs you of your worldly store, 
For him ye bolt the prison's iron door ; 
Say, why inflict your stripes on these and save, 
14 Unwhipped of justice," the still blacker knave? 

But yonder see destruction's frowning van 
Led on by that resemblance of a man, 
Who pours intemperance, burning tide for gain, 
And, like the Jaguar, riots on the slain, 
Who makes the drunkard and destroys his health, 
Then basely robs him of his home and wealth. 
His shrivelled soul wrapped up within its clay 
* Unheeding turns from human woes away. 
Now go with moral suasion and persuade 
The unfeeling monster to give up the trade. 
But should ye fail, that grand specific try 
That cures at once each moral malady, 
And soon shall drive all crime from the creation, 
" The general tendency of legislation" 

Oh! my loved country, when shalt thou be freed 
From this foul curse, if in thine utmost need 
Thine abl rl thy cause and throw 

Their influence to sustain thy greatest foe? 



Charles Jewett, M.D. 91 

Alas! intemperance with poisonous breath, 
Like dire contagion, spreads disease and death; 
Gives to ungodly appetites the sway, 
And makes thy cherished sons her easy prey ; 
Delighted hears bereaved widow's wail, 
And smiles complaisant at the orphan's tale; 
The clanking of her chain her victim hears, 
And yet to wear it still his hands prepares. 
She takes from him all that is good within, 
Prunes and encourages the growth of sin, 
Stirs the malignant passions of his breast 
Till all the demon stands at once confessed, 
Beclouds the noon of life "with midnight's gloom, 
Concludes her work and hides him in the tomb. 
His soul, unwashed, ascends to meet his God, 
And that foul trade is guilty of his blood ; 
Yet those who saw him fall and marked his end 
Uphold the business, sanction and defend. 

Yet is it written in Heaven, and come it must, 
The hour that lays the monster in the dust. 

Soon may the glorious consummation come, 
Dispel the gloom that shrouds the drunkard's home ; 
To his poor wife the balm of hope impart, 
Bid her rejoice and heal her broken heart; 
Pile on her failing fire the needed wood, 
And feed her babes with necessary food. 

Elisha's cloud, no larger than the hand, 
Increased and watered Israel's thirsty land ; 
So shall the temperance cause which here had birth 
Spread o'er all lands and water all the earth. 



In one of his verses, exposing the meanness of the liquor- 
traffic, Dr. Jewett said : 

" I'd sooner black my visage o'er, 

And put the shine on boots and shoes, 
Than stand within a liquor-store 

And rinse the glasses drunkards use." 



WILBUR FISKE, D.D. 



E 



KV. DR. FISKE, President of the Wesleyan University, 
Middletown, Conn., in an address to members of 
churches on the immorality of the traffic in 1832, said : 

k% It is not enough that a majority of the church keep themselves 
from evil ; if they hold the sacred and protecting banner of the church 
those who cause others to sin, they are verily guilty themselves. 
The same train of means and causes that have produced the intempe- 
rate of the past and the present generations are still in operation to 
produce an equal or greater proportion in the next generation, and so 
on for ever ! And, what is still worse, the church is aiding and abetting 
tli is diabolical conspiracy against the bodies and souls of men ! We had 
indeed hoped for better things of Christians; but we are obliged to ac- 
knowledge the fact. And I appeal to the church herself, and ask her 
in the name of sincerity if she can clear herself of the charge ? Do not 
many of her members use ardent spirits ? Do they not traffic in the ac- 
cur v ? Do they not hold out on their signs invitations to all 

that pass by to come and purchase of them the deadly poison ! Then 
indeed is the church a partner in this conspiracy ; for it cannot be de- 
nied that all the drunkenness in the land is produced by what is called 
the temperate use of ardent spirits. 

u The conclusion, then, is irresistible, and every candid mind must feel 
it, every Christian will feel it: he who by use and traffic countenances 
the practice of drinking ardent spirits is throwing his influence into 
the work of recruiting the ranks of the intemperate, and renders himself 
personally responsible for the woes that follow. I say, then, on all the 
moderate drinkers in our land, on all that traffic in the accursed thing, 

- the woe thai God Himself hath denounced on him that putteth the 
enp to his neighbor's month and maketh him drunken* 

" My Christian brother, if yon saw this trade as I believe God sees 

it, yon would sooner beg your bread from door to door than gain money 

bysnefa Ihristian's dram-shop! Sound it to yourself. 

ir ear? It is doubtless a choice gem in the phrase- 

:i ! Bui bow paradoxical I How shocking to the ear of the 

Christian] How offensive to the car of Deity! Why, the dram-shop is 

the recruiting rendezvous of hell ! (If the term shocks you I cannot 

help it. for we all know it is the truth.) And shall a Christian consent 

l£ recruiting officer? It is here the drunkard is made, and you 



Fkaxcis Waylaxd, D.D. 93 

pander to his appetite until you have kindled up in his bosom a raging 
fire that can never be quenched — and all this for a little money! And 
when you have helped make him a drunkard, and he becomes trouble- 
some, you drive him, perhaps, from your house or your shop, declare 
you mean to keep an orderly house, express your abhorrence of drunk- 
ards, and imagine you are innocent of their blood ! But is too late to 
talk about denying him now. The man is ruined, and you have been 
the instrument. Say not, if you do not sell, others will. Must you be 
an ally of Satan and a destroyer of your race because others are ? If 
you leave off selling, you will weaken the ranks of sin, and strengthen 
the hands of the righteous. Say not, if you do not sell, it -will injure 
your business, and prevent your supporting your family. It was said 
by one that 'such a statement is -a libel upon the Divine government.' 
Must you, indeed, deal out ruin to your fellow-men, or starve? Then 
starve ! It would be a glorious martyrdom contrasted with the other 
alternative. Do not say, I sell by the large quantity; I have no tipplers 
about me, and therefore I am not guilty! You are the chief man in this 
business; the others are only subalterns. You are the 'poisoners gene- 
ral,' of whom Mr. Wesley speaks, who murder your-fellow citizens by 
the wholesale. But for the retailers to do your drudgery, you would 
have nothing to do. While you stand at the bulk-head, and open the 
flood-gates, they from this river of fire draw off the small rivulets, and 
direct them all over the land, to blight every hope and burn up every 
green thing. The greater your share in the traffic, the greater is your 
guilt. There is no avoiding this conclusion. The same reasoning will 
also apply to the manufacturer. If any man has priority of claim to a 
share in this work of death, it is the manufacturer. The church must 
free herself from this whole business. It is all a sinful work, with which 
Christians should have nothing to do, only to drive it from the sacred 
enclosures of the church, and, if possible, from the earth." 



FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D. 



EEV. DR. FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D., President of 
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in an 
address, after stating in 1832 that $90,000,000 were 
annually lost to the country by the use of ardent spirits, put 
the following questions to the conscience of those who con- 
tinued in the retail or wholesale traffic : 

' ; 1st. Can it be right for me to derive my living from that which is 
spreading disease, and poverty, and premature death throughout my 



i>i \ot-Print8 of Temperance Pioneers. 

ghborhood ? Bow would it be in any similar case ? Would it bo 

ii for me to derive my Living from Belling poison, or from propagat- 
ing plague or leprosy around mi 

1. Can it be right I'ov me to derive my living from that which 
Lb debasing the mind, and ruining the souls of my neighbors ? How 
would it be in any other ease V Would it be right for me to derive my 
living from the sale of a drug which produced misery, or madness ; or 
from the sale of obscene books which excited the passions, and brutal- 
lie minds, and ruined the souls of my fellow-men ? 

"3d. Can it be right for me to derive my living from that which 
for ever the happiness of the domestic circle — which is fill- 
ing the land with women and children in a condition far more deplor- 
able than that of widows and orphans ? 

Cl 4th. Can it be right for me to derive my living from that which is 
known to be the cause of nine-tenths of all the crimes which are per- 
petrated against society? 

"5th. Can it be right for me to derive my living from that which 
brings upon society nine-tenths of all the pauperism which exists, and 
which the rest of the community are obliged to pay for ? 

"6th. Can it be right for me to derive my living from that which 
accomplishes all these at once, and which does it without ceasing ? 

11 Do you say that you do not know that the liquor which you are 
selling will produce these results ? Do you not know that nine hundred 
and ninety-nine gallons produce these effects for one which is used in- 
nocently r I ask, then, 

h. Would it be right for me to sell poison on the ground that 
there was one chance in a thousand that the purchaser would not die 
of it ? 

"8th. Do you say that you are not responsible for the acts of your 

ghbor ? Is this clearly so? Is not he who knowingly furnishes a 
murderer with a weapon considered an accomplice ? Is not he who 
navigates a slave-ship considered a pirate ? 

"If these things be so, and that they are so who can dispute? I ask 
you, my respected fellow-citizens, what is to be done ? Let me ask, is 

thifl trade altogether wrong ? Why, then, should we not altogether 
abandon it ? 

''If any man think otherwise and choose to continue it, I have but 
one My brother, when you order a cargo of intoxicating 

drink, think how much misery you are importing into the community. 
it up, think how many curses you are heaping together 
A- you roll it out of your warehouse, think how many 
families each cask will ruin. Let, your thoughts then revert to your 
own . VOUr Wife and your little ones; look upward to Him who 

judgeth righteously, and ask yourself, my brother! Is this right?" 



HON. LEWIS CASS. 



W 



HEX Lewis Cass was Secretary of War, in 1832, he 
issued the following official order : 



"War Department, November. 2, 1832. 

"1. Hereafter no ardent spirits will be issued to troops of the United 
States, as a component part of the ration, nor shall any commutation 
therefor be paid to them. 

"2. No ardent spirits will be introduced into any fort, camp, or gar- 
rison of the United States, nor sold by any sutler to the troops. Nor 
will any permit be granted for the purchase of ardent spirits. 

" Under the authority vested in the President by the 8th section of 
the Act of Congress of April 14, 1818, the following changes will be 
made in the ration issued to the army : 

"3. As a substitute for the ardent spirits issued previously to the 
adoption of the general regulation of November 30, 1830, and for the 
commutation in money prescribed thereby, eight pounds of sugar and 
four pounds of coffee will be allowed to every one hundred rations. 
And at those posts where the troops may prefer it ten pounds of rice 
may be issued to every one hundred rations in lieu of the eight quarts 
of beans allowed by the existing regulations. 

"4. These regulations will not extend to the cases provided for by 
the Act of Congress of March 2, 1819. entitled * An act to regulate the 
pay of the army when employed on fatigue duty,' in which no discretion- 
ary authority is vested in the President, nor to the necessary supplies for 
the Hospital Department of the army. 

" Lewis Cass. 

" R. Jones, Adjutant- General. 1 ' 

Mr. Cass, referring to his own personal habits, said : 

" I have never tasted any ardent spirit, nor have I at any time dur- 
ing my life been in the habit of drinking wine. It is, of course, almost 
useless to add that I know nothing of the effect of stimulating liquors 
upon the constitution except by observing them in others. I have, per- 
haps, during a portion of my life been as much exposed as most men, 
having lived since boyhood in a new country, having served in the army 
during war. and having been led by official duties to traverse almost all 
the western region north of the Ohio and east of the Mi^is:>ippi." 



ELIPHALET XOTT, D.D., LLD. 



WEEN President of the Union College, in 1838, Dr. 
Nott delivered a series of ten lectures, which have 
been circulated by the hundred thousand in this 
country and in Europe. E. C. Delavan, Esq., of Albany, in 
referring to his advocacy of the two wine-theory, says he 
visited Dr. Nott, and reports his interview as follows : 

" Much to our surprise, we found the doctor had already delivered 
a course of lectures in Schenectady and elsewhere, in which he had on 
Some important points come to similar conclusions with said authors, 
to wit: That different kinds of wine, both good and bad, had existed 
from remote antiquity, and that this distinction was recognized in the 
Bible, sometimes explicitly, and sometimes by implication; and that the 
observance of this distinction would go far to reconcile those texts of 
Scripture in which wine is commended with those in which it is con- 
demned. That by good wine is meant wine the effect of which on the 
physical and moral constitution of man is good. By bad wine is meant 
wine the effect of which on the physical and moral constitution of man 
is bad. That when the Bible recommends the use of wine it is good, 
healthful, refreshing wine; and when it condemns the use of wine it is 
bad, deleterious, crime-producing wine." 

Dr. Nott, in opening his third lecture, says : 
"In the preceding lecture we have shown that different kinds of 
wine existed, and were known to exist from remote antiquity, some of 
which were salubrious, sober wines and some deleterious and intoxicat- 
ing. 

" Since these things are so, since different and even opposite kinds of 
wine exist, and are known to have existed from remote antiquity, to 
rtain which of these two kinds of wine— whether salubrious and re- 
freshing, or poisonous and intoxicating wine— was used by our Lord in 
th. ital Supper, which lb' instituted, it will first be necessary 

tain which of these two kinds of wine was used at the Paschal 
Sup: 

remark that the fruit of the vine in none 
of it* forms constituted any pari of the Paschal Supper at its original 
Institution, as will appear from the Thirteenth Chapter of Exodus. On 
the contrary, on the l Lth of Nisan, a larah without blemish was by each 
family i u with bitter herbs; eaten standing, with their loins 



Hon. William Wirt. 97 

girded, their shoes on their feet, their staves in their hands, and eaten 
in haste. 

"In whatever form the fruit of the vine was subsequently used, it 
was probably introduced after the settlement in Canaan, where the 
guests, in place of standing, as appears from John xii. 23, reclined 
on their left arm in conches placed round the table— a posture which, 
according to the writers in the Talmud, was an emblem of that rest and 
freedom which God had granted to His people. 

" But at whatever time wine was introduced, it may, in the absence 
of positive proof, be presumed that the kind selected would be in keep- 
ing with the nature of the ordinance; and this, it should seem, ought 
rather to be unintoxicating than intoxicating wines, as the former 
better accords than the latter with a solemnity in which bitter herbs 
were to be eaten, and from which leavex, which term admits of appli- 
cation to liquors as well as bread, was to be utterly excluded. < Un- 
leavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened 
bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with-thee in 
all thy quarters.' 

" I am aware that absolute certainty on a question of usage in such 
remote antiquity is hardly to be expected. Still, in view of all the 
circumstances of the case, and of the prohibition of leaven on these oc- 
casions, the probability seems to be on the side of unintoxicating wine; 
and authorities are not wanting which go to confirm this hypothesis." 



HON. WILLIAM WIRT. 



HON. WILLIAM WIRT, who had been Attorney-Gene- 
ral of the United States, in a commimi cation to a 
Baltimore temperance society in 1832 said : 

u I have been for more than forty years a close observer of life and 
manners in various parts of the United States, and I know not the evil 
that will bear a moment's comparison with intemperance. It is no 
exaggeration to say, as has been often said, that this single cause has 
produced more vice, crime, poverty, and wretchedness in every form, 
domestic and social, than all the other ills that scourge us combined. 
In truth, it is scarcely possible to meet with misery in any shape in this 
country which will not be found on examination to have proceeded, 
directly or indirectly, from the excessive use of ardent spirits. Want 
is one of its immediate consequences. The sad spectacle of starving and 
destitute families, and of ignorant, half-naked, vicious children, ought 
never to be presented in a country like this, where the demand for labor 
is constant, the field unlimited, the sources of supply inexhaustible, and 



Foot- Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

where then arc none to make us afraid ; and it never would be pre- 
sented, or vitv rarely Indeed, were it not for the desolation brought 
upon families by the general use of this deadly poison. It paralyzes the 
arm, the brain, the heart All the best affections, all the energies of the 
mind, wither under its inlluence. The man becomes a maniac, and is 
1 up in a hospital, or imbrues his hands in the blood of his wife and 
children, and is sent t<> the gallows or doomed to the penitentiary ; or, 
if he escapes these consequences, he becomes a walking pestilence on the 
earth, miserable in himself and loathsome to all who behold him. How 
often do we see, too, whole families contaminated by the vicious ex- 
ample of the parent ; husbands, wives, daughters, and sons, all drunk- 
ards and furies; sometimes wives murdering their husbands, at others 
husbands their wives; and worst of all — if worse can be in such a group 
of horrors — children murdering their parents. But below this grade of 
crime how much is there of unseen and untold misery, throughout our 
otherwise happy land, proceeding from this fatal cause alone. I am 
persuaded that if we could have a statistical survey and report of the 
affairs of unhappy families and individuals, with the causes of their 
misery annexed, we should find nine cases out of ten, if not a still 
greater proportion, resulting from the use of ardent spirits alone. With 
this conviction, which seems to have become universal among reflecting 
men, the apathy shown to the continuance of the evil can only be 
ascribed to the circumstance that the mischief, though verbally ad- 
mitted, is not seen and felt in all its enormity. If some fatal plague, of 
a contagious character, were imported into our country, and had com- 
menced its ravages in our cities, we should see the most prompt and 
vigorous measures at once adopted to repress and extinguish it ; but 
what are the most fearful plagues that ever carried death and havoc in 
their train through the Eastern countries compared with this ? They 
are only occasionally ; this is perennial. They are confined by climate 
or place; this malady is of all climates, and all times and places. They 
kill the body at once; this consumes both body and soul by a lingering 
and dreadful death, involving the dearest connections in the vortex of 
ruin. What parent, however exemplary himself, can ever feel that his 
safe while the living fountain of poison is within his reach? God 
grant that it may soon become a fountain sealed, in our country at least. 
What a relief, what a delightful relief, would it be to turn from the 
awful and horrid past to the pure, peaceful, and happy future ; to see 
pringS of life, and feeling, and intelligence renewed on every hand; 
health, Industry, and prosperity glowing around us; the altars of do- 
kindled in every family; and the religion of the 
1 with a fair field for its eelestial action. 
" T' (ready made by our temperance societies in advanc- 

ing this golden age prores them to be of a divine origin. May the 
Almighty crown His own work with full and speedy success !" 






HON. THEODORE FRELfflGHUYSEN. 



MR. FRELINGHUYSEN, Chancellor of the University 
of New York, United States Senator, President of the 
American Bible Society, candidate for Vice-President 
of the United States on the ticket with Henry Clay, was also 
one of the Executive Committee of the American Temperance 
Union, and outspoken for temperance. In 1883 he declared : 

"If men will engage in this destructive traffic ; if they will stoop to 
degrade their reason and reap the wages of iniquity, let them no longer 
have the law-book as a pillow, nor quiet conscience with the opiate of a 
court license. 

11 We owe it to our history, to our free institutions, and above all we 
owe it to Him whose benignant Providence has so richly blessed us, that 
we purify our laws." 

On another occasion he said : 

" Fourteen years ago we thought if we could reach ardent spirits we 
should cure the evil ; and a pledge was adopted with that view. But 
experience taught us that it did not reach the disease. We enlarged 
the remedy. We did not at first make war against mere names. What- 
ever it was that corrupted the taste, poisoned the body, and ruined the 
soul, against that we made war. Alcohol was the evil, and wherever 
that was found we applied the remedy. The objector comes and 
claims that wine, beer, and cider are not distilled spirits, and should 
therefore escape denunciation. We answer, whatever it is that produces 
intoxication, whether distilled or fermented, against that we raise the 
warning voice. And there was no need even of the formal change of 
the pledge— there was vigor enough in the original pledge, if properly 
understood, to cover the whole of the ground. It was intoxication that 
was filling up our grave-yards; and against this was the original pledge 
aimed. This it was that we sought to remedy; and whatever the liquor 
was called, if it induced this dreadful consequence, we stopped not to 
cavil about the name. We associated the thing with its consequences. 

" Of all the habits, this is the most insidious. It gives no warning of 
its enchantments. It speaks peace, promises joy, and makes encroach- 
ments by little and little. The individual beholds visions of exalted 
joy while he digs his own grave, and while the tempter whispers peace 
he secretly and surely destroys all that is valuable in his character. He 
but professes to quench his thirst, yet only excites it. The more he 
seeks to gratify it the louder is the call. It is one of those stimulating 
agents which the body cannot endure without being brought into bond- 

99 



100 



^Prints or Temperance Pioxeers. 



The man who takes his glass of wine to-day at a certain time will 

require it in Larger quantity to-morrow. More than sixty years ago l>r. 
Johuson was asked, 'Why don't you take wine?' Be answered, * For 
the most important of all reasons: 1 can't take a little.' Thai is the 

only p] 1 put it to every man accustomed to use wine if 

•led with the same quantity now that lie was a year ago. I 

remember one of the most efficient friends of temperance was led to stop 

drinking from reading three lines in a temperance publication, which 

that a man who was accustomed to drink would -fill his 

rery morning, lie said to me, 'I threw down the book 

and thought it extravagant; but that very day, at dinner, when I went 

to take my brandy and water, I found I had actually doubled the quan- 

Talk about drinking temperately; you cannot. God never meant 

alcohol should be used temperately. 1 tremble at every temperate 

friend 1 have, whether he drinks wine or brandy." 



BENJAMIN RUSH'S THERMOMETER. 

TnE essay of Dr. Benjamin Rush, published one hundred years ago, 
panied with the following " Moral and Physical Thermome- 
ter of Intemperance." 



u- 




— 


10- 


— 


— 


20- 




- 


30- 


— 


— 


40- 


— 




50- 


— 




60- 

70- 


— 


- 



o 



Punch. 



Toddy and Ego 
Rum. 



Grog— Brandy 
and Water. 



Flip and Shrub. 



Bitters Infused 
ialb. 

in of Gin, 
Branny, WhJS- 

THSBi 

The Same, Dtr- 
- Day and 

NlOHT. 



Idleness. 



Gaming, Peevish 
ness, Quarrel 
ling. 

Fighting, Horse- 
Racing. 



Lying, Swearing, 
Licentiousness. 



Stealing and 
Swindling. 



Perjury. 

Burglary. 
Murder. 



Diseases. 



Sickness. 



Tremors of the 
Hands In the 
Morning, Bloat- 
edness, and Vo 
miting. 

Inflamed Eyes, 
Red Nose and 
Face. 



Sore and Swelled 
Legs, Jaundice. 

Pains in the 
Hands, Burning 
in the Hands 
and Feet. 

Dropsy and Epi- 
lepsy, Delirium 
Tremens. 



Melancholy, Pal 
ey, Apoplexy. 

H and 
Despair. 



Punishments. 



Debt. 



Jail. 



Black Eyes and 
Rags. 



Hospital or 
Poor-House. 

Bridewell. 



State Prison. 



Do. for Life. 
Gallows. 



REV. THEOBALD MATHEW. 



FATHER MATHEW was born in 1790, and when in his 
forty-seventh year he entered earnestly into the tempe- 
rance movement. When he signed the pledge he wrote, 
" Here goes, in the name of God, Eev. Theobald Mathew, 
C. C, Cove Street, No. 1." From that moment he conse- 
crated his talents to the temperance reform. Millions signed 
the pledge under him. He made a journey to this country 
in 1849 and six hundred thousand took the pledge from his 
hand. In giving his reasons for signing the pledge he said : 

"'The great temperance movement which we witness was not 
lightly thought of by me ; it was not the result of sudden excitement, 
it was not the impulse of a moment, that induced me to undertake the 
share I have had in it. I pondered long upon it ; I examined it care- 
fully ; I had long reflected on the degradation to which my country 
was reduced^-a country, I will say, second to none in the universe for 
any element that constitutes a nation's greatness, with a people whose 
generous nature is the world's admiration. I mourned in secret over 
the miseries of this country. I endeavored to find out the cause of 
those miseries, and, if that were possible, to apply a remedy. I saw that 
these miseries were chiefly owing to the crimes of the people, and that 
those crimes again had their origin in the use that was made of intoxi- 
cating drinks.' He closed by expressing his great joy at the success, 
and that ' the grain of mustard-seed had grown by degrees into that 
# mighty and majestic tree that has overshadowed the land, and under 
whose peaceful branches we are met this evening.' " 

The following is an extract from one of his addresses : 

" The man must have a grovelling spirit who is willing to remain 
always in a poor and degraded situation in society, and not endeavor to 
exalt himself. By the practice of temperance you will lay the founda- 
tion of your fortunes ; and, if your fathers before you had done so, they 
would have left you more prosperously circumstanced in the world. 
Even amongst yourselves, how many of your friends have raised them- 
selves to affluence and respectability by the practice of temperance! 
You are also, when you declare against the use of intoxicating liquors, 
showing a good example to others to come forward and make a similar 
renunciation. There is nothing like a good example; it extends far and 
wide, and nothing can be more pernicious than a bad example, for it ex- 
tends in like manner. If you throw a stone into a pool of water, the 

101 



102 Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 

envies it produces will extend until they reach the land on every side. 
In Like manner the good you do will extend not only to the present but 
to future generations; and when you are dead, and your names for- 

i and your bonee mouldering in the grave, after-ages will reap the 
benefit of the good work you are doing to-day and bless you for it. So 

sample Will extend in like manner; we, therefore, should reflect 
well on what we do, and consider whether it is good or evil, or whether 
by our aets we break any of the commandments of God — for the Psalm- 

9: 'Thy commandments, O Lord! arc exceedingly broad.' The 
commandments extend to every act of ours, and, by showing a good 

pic we secure our own happiness and that of others." 

A year or two before Ins death Father Mathew wrote to 
Hon. E. C. Delavan, and said : 

11 The principle of prohibition seems to me to be the only safe and 
certain remedy for the evils of intemperance. The opinion has been 
strengthened and confirmed by the hard labor of more than twenty 
years in the temperance cause." 



NATHANIEL HEWITT, D.D. 

EEV. DR. HEWITT, on his return from Europe, de- 
livered an address before the American Temperance 
Society in May, 1832, in which he said : 

u We have often heard it said that France was a wine-drinking, but 
still a temperate, country. The latter is entirely false. The common 
people there are burnt up with wine, and look exactly like the cider- 
brandy drinkers of Connecticut and the New England rum-drinkers of 

ichusetts. The broils and quarrels and fighting produced by the * 
wine drank by the lower orders are endless." 



REV. HENRY WARE JR. 



R 



KV. IIEXRY WARE, Jr., professor of pulpit elo- 
quence in Harvard University in 1832, said : 

seems to me susceptible of more satisfactory demen- 
ti than this — and 1 am sure that no person can give it one hour's 
is thought wiii ; to it — that, in the present state of iri- 

•ion cm this subject* no man can think to act on Christian prin- 
01 do a patriot's duty to his country and at the same time make 

il this instrument of intoxication. " 



REV. JOHN PIERPONT. 



E 



EV. JOHN PIEKPONT in the year 1834 wrote a poem 

on the license system, in which he said ■ 

" ' For so much gold we license thee,' 

So say our laws, ' the draught to sell,' 

That loves the strong, enslaves the free, 
And opens wide the gates of hell ; 

For ' public good ' requires that some 

Should live, since many die, by rum. 

" And will ye give to man a bill 

Divorcing him from Heaven's high sway? 

And while God says, ■ Thou shalt not kill, ' 
Say ye J For gold, ye may, ye may ? ' 

Compare the body with the soul ! 

Compare the bullet with the bowl ! 

" In which is felt the fiercer blast 

Of the destroying-angePs breath? 
"Which binds its victim the more fast ? 

Which kills him with a deadlier death? 
Will ye the felon fox restrain, 
And yet take off the tiger's chain? " 



ADDRESS TO A JUG OF RUM. 

[First published in 1815.] 



Here only by a cork controlled 
And slender walls of earthen mould, 
In all the pomp of death, repose 
The seeds of many a bloody nose, 
The chattering tongue, the horrid 

oath— 
The first for fighting nothing loath ; 
The passions which no word can 

tame, 
That burst like sulphur into flame; 

103 



The nose carbuncled, growing red ; 
The bloated eye, the broken head; 
The tree that bears a deadly fruit 
Of murder, maiming, and dispute; 
Assaults, that innocence assails; 
The images of gloomy jails ; 
The giddy thought on mischief bent ; 
The midnight hour in riot spent — 
All these within the jug appear, 
And Jack the hangman in the rear. 






THE GREAT NATIONAL SCOURGE. 



IN Volume II. of "Permanent Temperance Documents," 
containing the second annual report of the American 
Temperance Union, held in 1838, is found an address 
by numerous petitioners of Portage County to the Senate and 
House of Representatives of Ohio, February, 1838, which 
has in later years been wrongfully credited to Mr. Robert 
Ingersoll. The following is an extract : 

"Your petitioners respectfully state that, among the scourges 
which have heretofore desolated and now are afflicting our common 
country, no one can be named which bears rivalship with the use of in- 
toxicating liquors. 

"The history of the world coincides with the observation of every 
ingenuous and philosophic mind in fully attesting the fact that their 
use as a beverage by persons in health is ever pernicious, never bene- 
ficial, and that, with few exceptions, the individual habitually using 
them soon becomes a drunkard, and hence ours has for years been styled 
'a nation of drunkards.' The use of such liquors as a beverage is there- 
fore intemperance, and he who speaks of their ' moderate ' or ' tempe- 
rate ' use abuses reason, despises truth, and perverts language. 

"Without a single redeeming trait, their sole and entire aim is to 
ruin and destroy the human species. They begin their work by chang- 
ing man into a brute, continue it by transforming him into a monster, 
and abandon him only when he has ceased to breathe. However viewed, 
and wherever found, intemperance, in its beginning, its progress, and 

Blld, is everywhere marked by desolation and woe. Alcohol, both in 
name and In troth, is the poison of our species. Chemical analysis and 
phj 1 experiment have established beyond controversy that 

ived into the stomach, remains unchanged — unassimilated— 
and as raoh trawN with the blood through the various arteries, veins, 
and organs of the system, not as blood, nor as its fit companion, but as 
a muni' . a treacherous highwayman, charged with poison 

and ioned to d 

"In its journey round it feeds upon the liver, corrodes the lungs, 

appetite, Impairs digestion, discolors and 
vitiates the blood, defiles the breath, crimsons the nose, parches the 

the throat, husks the voice, bloats the 
104 



Foot-Prints of Temperance Pioneers. 105 

face, dims the eye, wastes the muscles, palsies the limbs, deranges the 
nerves, and consumes the heart; and, as though its warrant was not yet 
fully executed, a detached portion of it aims at the head, breaks through 
its delicate vessels, crowds out reason, and takes up its poisonous, sac- 
rilegious residence on the brain, and fears not to profane Divinity's 
earthly temple. What wonder, then, that the spirit-drinker is a 
maniac! 

" But even now its baneful work is hardly begun. Having thus un- 
dermined the health, and prepared the system for the ravages of disease, 
it strikes at the moral and intellectual powers of man. It enfeebles the 
understanding, impairs the judgment, effaces the memory, extinguishes 
sensibility, pollutes the imagination, depraves the taste, stupefies con- 
science, annihilates honor, prostrates self-respect, debases the social af- 
fections, sours the disposition, inflames the wicked passions, dethrones 
the reason, and contaminates the heart, and thus quenches rational life 
and blots out the moral image of Deity's handiwork. Why, therefore, 
must not the intemperate man become a human fiend ? Who is safe 
where he is? 

" And yet its march of ruin is onward still ! It reaches abroad to 
others, invades the family and social circle, and spreads woe and sor- 
row all around. It cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in its 
strength, and age in its weakness. It breaks the father's heart, bereaves 
the doting mother, extinguishes natural affection, erases conjugal love, 
blots out filial attachment, blights parental hope, and brings down 
mourning age in sorrow to the grave. It produces weakness, not 
strength ; sickness, not- health ; death, not life. It makes wives wid- 
ows, children orphans, fathers fiends, and all of them paupers and beg- 
gars. It hails fevers, feeds rheumatisms, nurses gout, welcomes epi- 
demics, invites the cholera, imports pestilence, and embraces consump- 
tions. It covers the land with idleness, poverty, disease, and crime. It 
fills your jails, supplies your almshouses, and demands your asylums. 
It engenders controversies, fosters quarrels, and cherishes riots. It con- 
temns law, spurns order, and loves mobs. It crowds your penitentiaries, 
and furnishes the victims for your scaffolds. It is the life-blood of the 
gambler, the aliment of the counterfeiter, the prop of the highwayman, 
and the support of the midnight incendiary. 

' ' It countenances the liar, respects the thief, and esteems the blas- 
phemer. It violates obligation, reverences fraud, and honors infamy. 
It defames benevolence, hates love, accuses virtue, and slanders in- 
nocence. It incites the father to murder his offspring, helps the hus- 
band to massacre his wife, and aids the child to grind his parricidal axe. 
It burns up man, consumes woman, detests life, curses God, and de- 
spises heaven. 

u It suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, defiles the jury-box, and stains 
the judicial ermine. It bribes votes, disqualifies voters, corrupts elec- 



10G Hon. Daniel Webster, 

tions, pollutes our institutions, and endangers our government. It de- 

bhe citizen, debases the Legislator, dishonors the statesman, and 
disarms the patriot. Jt brings shame, not honor; terror, not safety; de- 
spair, not hope; misery, not happiness. And now, as with the malevo- 
lent ud, ii calmly surveys its frightful desolations; still insatiate 
with havoc, it poisons felioity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confi- 
dence, -lays reputation, and wipes out national honor ; then curses the 

Id and laughs at its ruins. 

11 Humanity now asks, and patriotism and philanthropy earnestly 
inquire, shall it, must it, continue longer in our free but abused coun- 
try ? And if so, why t What good has it done? what good can it effect? 
n can it benefit, and how ? 

"Against this hydra, intemperance, the best efforts of the virtuous, 
the benevolent, and the patriotic have for years been arrayed, and, we 
doubt not, a large portion of your honorable body are enlisted in the 
same hallowed cause. We solicit, then, your assistance. We implore 

r aid to protect us against this destroyer of our species, this com- 
mon enemy of the human race. It was to effect purposes, and extend 
protection like this now solicited, that government was established. It 
is in accomplishing objects so noble, so kind, and so virtuous that legis- 
latures are honored and their enactments highly respected." 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER. 



TIIE " Temperance Text-Book " of 1832 reported Daniel 
Webster as saying : 

11 Nothing less certainly can be said of it than that it is a great vice, 
and in an extraordinary degree the parent and concomitant of other 
vices. Doubtless, more than other vices this unfits the mind for 
cultivation or growth of any plant of virtue. It strikes a blow, a 
deadly blow, at once on all its capacities and all its sensibilities. It 
renders it alike incapable of pious feelings, of social regard, and of do- 
mestic affection. One of its earliest visible consequences is a lessening 
a consciousness of personal degradation, an humbling 
convici Aim that he has sunk, or is sinking, from his 

proper rank as an intellectual and moral being. " 



Rr.v. Dr. Edwards said: " A respectable and influential man early 
in life the habit of using a little ardent spirit daily. lie and 

m in the drunkard's grave, and the only surviv- 
ing child is rapidly falling in the same way, to the same dismal end.*' 



TWELVE REASONS FOR TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 



REV. DE. JUSTIN EDWAKDS, Secretary of the Ameri- 
can Temperance Society, in his report for the year 
1832 gave the following beneficial results which would 
follow if all should cease to use intoxicating liquor : 

Should all the inhabitants of the United States cease to use intoxi- 
cating liquor, the following would be some of the beneficial, results — 
\iz.: 

1. Not an individual would hereafter become a drunkard. 

2. Many who are now drunkards would reform, and would be saved 
from the drunkard's grave. 

3. As soon as those who would not reform should be dead, which 
would be but a short time, not a drunkard would be found, and the 
whole land would be free. 

4. More than three-fourths of the pauperism of the country might be 
prevented, and also more than three-fourths of the crimes. 

5. One of the grand causes of error in principle, and immorality in 
practice, and of all dissipation, vice, and wretchedness, would be re- 
moved. 

6. The number, frequency, and severity of diseases would be greatly 
lessened, and the number and hopelessness of maniacs in our land be 
exceedingly diminished. 

7. One of the greatest dangers of our children and youth, and one 
of the principal causes of bodily, mental, and moral deterioration would 
be removed. 

8. Loss of property in one generation to an amount greater than the 
present value of all the houses and lands in the United States might be 
prevented. 

9. One of the greatest dangers to our free institutions, to the per- 
petuity of our government, and to all the blessings of civil and religious 
liberty would be removed. 

10. The efficacy of the Gospel, and all the means which God has ap- 
pointed for the spiritual and eternal good of men, would be exceedingly 
augmented ; and the same amount of moral and religious effort might 
be expected to produce more than double its present effects. 

11. Multitudes of every generation through all future ages might be 
prevented from sinking into an untimely grave and into endless tor- 
ment ; they might be transformed into the divine image and prepared, 
through grace, for the endless joys of heaven. 

12. God would be honored, voluntarily and actively, by much greater 
numbers and with greater clearness, and to a greater extent would, 
through their instrumentality, manifest His glory. 

107 



FIFTY YEARS AGO. 



TIIE Temperance Almanac of 1836 contains some tempe- 
rance statistics gathered in 1835, which we herewith 
present : 

-»\000 DRUNKARDS IN TIIE UNITED STATES. 
lie common estimate of the number of drunkards in the United 
States has been 300,000. We are prepared to show that they will 
amount to nearly double that number. An actual census has been 
taken of the counties of Wayne and Seneca, and five towns in Cayuga 
mi v, Slate of New York, and the following is the result. We would 
like to give particulars, but have only space for a summary, viz. : 



COUNTIES. 


Families. 


Persons. 


o5 

£ 
8 

1 

Eh 


2 °o 

° M 


d 

E 

5 

} 

d 

i— i 


Wayne County 


3,3.20 

3,651 
1,254 


18,549 

20,864 

5,644 


10,411 
11,432 
2,654 


7.489 
8,662 

2,748 


649 
768 
242 


• nity 


Five town* in Cayuga County 




Total 


8,225 


45,057 


21,497 


18,899 


1,659 





I 



"In a population of 45,057 are 1,G59 drunkards, or 1 to every 27 
persons, and 1 to every 5 families. Estimating the present population 
of the country at 14,000,000, and taking 1 to 27 as a standard, the re- 
sult will be within a fraction of 555,000. In the above counties and 
towns as great efforts have been made in the cause of temperance as in 
any part of the United States; and every one must admit, on looking at 
the number of temperate reported above— viz. : 24,497, in a population of 
7 — that it is an unusually temperate community. It must be allow- 
ed, therefore, thai the result of this census affords a fair standard for the 
United 9 Let it be borne in mind that here is nothing 

Lative. These returns are made from actual examination by com- 
table men, and the particulars of each town are given 
t fly. Taking one of the most temperate communities in the 
Unite adard, there are at this day more than 

million of drunkards in our country. Let it be borne in mind, 
community of 45,067 persons there are 18,899 
moderate drink r-rank men, who stand ready to keep the front, 

or drunkai as they may stagger into their graves. 

eto new efforts— but the half has been told 

J 108 



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